CIENTIHC PROGRi 



<Um FOR THE YEAR €XS> 



I891 



GRI/\SHAW,/\E.,Ph.D. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Shelf .II- 

UMTED STATES OF AMERICA, 



RECORD 

OF 



SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS 



FOR THE YEAR 1891 



EXHIBITING THE MOST IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES AND 
IMPROVEMENTS IN ALL THE BRANCHES OF ENGINEER- 
ING, ARCHITECTURE AND BUILDING, MINING AND 
METALLURGY, THE MECHANIC ARTS, INDUSTRIAL 
TECHNOL OGT AND THE USEFUL AR TS, PHO TO G- 
RAPHT, CHEMISTRY, MEDICINE AND SUR- 
GERY, PRINTING, THE GENERATION, 
MEASUREMENT, TRANSMISSION, AND 
APPLICATION OF ELECTRICITY, 
THE TELEGRAPH AND TELE 
PHONE, METEOROLOGY 
AND AERONA UTY, AS- 
TRONOMY, ETC., 



/ BY 

ROBERT GRIMSHAW, M. E., Ph. D. 

PAST PRESIDENT JAMES WATT ASSN., NO. 7 OF N. Y., N. A. S. E.; MEMBER FULTON 

COUNCIL, NO. 1 OF N. Y., A. O. S. E.; AUTHOR OF " STEAM ENGINE CATECHISM," 

"ENGINE RUNNERS' CATECHISM," " BOILER CATECHISM," " PUMP CATECHISM," 

" PRACTICAL CATECHISM," " PREPARING FOR INDICATION," " HINTS TO 

POWER USERS," "ENGINEERS' HOURLY LOG-BOOK," ETC. ONE 

OF THE EDITORS OF THB STANDARD DICTIONARY. 



NEW YORK 

CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY 

104 & 106 Fourth Avenue 



iihif 






Copyright, 1892, by 
CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY. 

All rights reserved. 



THE MER8HON COMPANY PRESS, 
RAHWAY, N. J. 



\ 



TO THE 



^XKtiklin Institute 

OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA FOR THE PROMOTION OF 
THE MECHANIC ARTS. 



PREFACE 



In these days of progress, scientific knowledge is 
more extended in scope and diffusion, and influences 
each year more people ; so that the number of those 
not interested in scientific advancement is rapidly 
decreasing. But scientific books and periodicals are 
already so numerous that it would be impossible for 
the average person to read even a small portion of 
those in his own language, to say nothing of those 
which, being in foreign tongues, are not directly 
available to the majority. 

To serve the millions for whose pleasure and bene- 
fit science must no longer be a sealed book, who wish 
to be reasonably well-informed on practically the 
whole range of scientific progress, but who may 
lack time and opportunity to read more than a few 
of the excellent special periodicals from which the 
text-books and cyclopaedias largely draw their data, I 
have prepared these pages, which I hope will save time 
and eyesight to the unscientific, and serve for ready 
reference to those whose thought and action lie within 
technical circles. 

As far as practicable, the best periodicals and 



VI PREFACE. 

other sources of information in the entire range of 
useful science have been laid under tribute, and 
leaders in inventive and manufacturing circles have 
added from their knowledge. From the immense 
mass of material thus gathered and received the main 
items of interest have been selected, divested of unnec- 
essary detail and couched in simple language, suited 
to the mass of intelligent English-speakers. 

I have tried to make the record complete, concise, 
popular, useful, interesting, convenient, and accurate. 

I should be glad to receive for next year's record 
authentic data concerning new and important inven- 
tions, investigations, and discoveries. 

Robert Grimshaw. 
21 Park Row, New York. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Steam Engineering, 1 

General Mechanical Engineering, ... 13 

Hydraulic Engineering, 22 

Marine Engineering and Ship Building, . . 40 

Locomotives, 60 

Railways — Permanent Way, ...... 75 

Railway Rolling Stock, 81 

Proposed Railways, 87 

Fast Railway Runs, 97 

Miscellaneous Railway Items, 101 

Canals, 107 

Tunnels, 114 

Bridges, 122 

Architecture and Building, 127 

Mining and Quarrying, 132 

Metallurgy and Foundry Practice, .... 138 

Machine Shop Practice, 155 

Woodworking Machinery, ...... 173 

Wheel Making Machinery, 188 

Textile Machinery, 194 

Transmission of Power, 197 

Industrial Technology, 200 

Photography, 215 

v 



VI CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

General Physics, 221 

Medicine, 226 

Surgery, ' . 235 

Printing and Typewriting, 237 

Electricity, 241 

Telegraphy, 300 

The Telephone, . 305 

Military, 307 

Ordnance and Firearms 317 

Meteorology, 321 

Aeronauty, 323 

Astronomy, 324 

Agriculture, 326 

Intercommunication, 330 

Miscellaneous, 333 









RECORD 

OF 

SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS 



STEAM ENGINEERING. 

Despite the wonderful advances made in the 
science of electricity, and in the many applications 
thereof, steam is still king of the forces by which 
civilized man is enabled to make progress against 
those of nature, and to increase his supremacy over 
his less progressive fellows ; and a record of the 
triumphs in steam engineering is to some extent an 
index of the degree of such progress. 

The science or profession of steam engineering has 
been set apart from the rest of mechanical engineer- 
ing, once so called, because of the extent of its scope, 
and of the peculiarities which make it necessary to 
be studied as a separate science and practiced as a 
separate art. 

The past year has been noted in this particular for 
progress made in marine engines, particularly in the 
development and application to the propulsion of 
large vessels in successful commercial practice, of the 



2 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

triple and quadruple expansion engines, and the appli- 
cation to locomotives of the compound principle.* 

STEAM ENGINES. 

The City of Paris has been furnished with a de- 
vice which controls the engines and stops them when 
they exceed a fixed number of revolutions. To the 
ordinary steam and hydraulic starting gear there is 
attached a small steam cylinder which has always 
steam in it, being supplied from the same pipe as the 
starting engine ; the idea being that whenever steam 
is on the starting cylinder the smaller cylinder 
should be ready for work. A weighted bell crank 
that can be adjusted to any number of revolutions 
is kept reciprocating by a, small lever from the 
air-pump lever. Should the main engine turns exceed 
the desired number (in this case 120 per minute) the 
inertia of the weight causes the upper bell crank 
arm to engage a detent on the small steam cylinder's 
valve plunger ; on the ordinary starting gear there 
is a differential attachment on the hydraulic cylinder. 
The lever that admits steam for moving the links lets 
oil or water to either side of the piston. The con- 
trolling machine does not move the lever, but moves 
the fulcrum on which it works far enough to bring 
the valve in a position corresponding to the mid-po- 
sition of the link. 

Experiments have given satisfactory results with 
" assistant cylinders " for marine engines, in which by 
the direct pressure of steam or of water, exerted in 
the cylinder, the valves of large and fast-running en- 

* See under the head of Locomotives. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 3 

gines may be driven without the use of complicated 
and cumbersome machinery. 

NOVEL TANDEM ENGINE. 

A tandem compound steam engine by Clarke, of 
British Columbia, is for driving twin screws. There 
is a crosshead between the high and low pressure cyl- 
inders ; and this operates two connecting rods, one 
for each crank of the two shafts. On the crank are 
two crank arms pivotally connected by opposite pit- 
men, with a slide mounted in vertical guide ways, 
supported on a frame erected on the base, the motion 
of the crank shafts causing the vertical sliding mo- 
tion of a piece traveling loosely in the guide ways, 
and thus serving as a governor, as, in case one of the 
propellers becomes disabled the power of the shaft 
carrying the disabled propeller would be directly 
transferred to the other shaft through the crank arm, 
pitman, and slide. 

The tugboat Edwin Hartley, plying in New York 
harbor, has been equipped with an ammonia-steam 
condensing engine. 

A new Corliss gear by W. "Walker, of Manchester, 
drives the admission and exhaust valves by separate 
eccentrics. The hardened contact pieces of the re- 
leasing gear work in an oil bath, thus minimizing the 
wear. 

Corliss engine dashpots are now run at a speed of 
160 to 170 lifts per minute in this country. 

The compounding principle has been applied to 



4 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

steam road rollers by the Burrells, of Thetford, Eng- 
land. 

A new oil pump for continuous lubrication of shafts 
screws on a bracket at such distance from the shaft 
as will permit a leather-covered eccentric, which it 
bears, to play on the shaft. The eccentric drives the 
arm of the pump ; the oil is contained in the main stem 
of the device. It will work whichever way the shaft 
moves, so long as the shaft is not greasy where the 
eccentric rotates against it. 

Klein proposes an apparatus by which the cooling 
effect of air may be brought into efficient play for 
condensing steam in an engine ; and although water 
is used as an intermediary, there is very little new 
water required. The water which has been made to 
condense the steam, is made to flow through a tower 
in which an upward current of air is passed by a fan. 
The apparatus for a 100 H. P. engine covers six by 
nine feet on the ground ; the fan ventilator is 6-J feet 
diameter, and the apparatus is for cooling 8800 Brit- 
ish gallons of water per hour from 38° C. to 22° C. 
with a loss of three per cent, of the water. It is 
claimed that the water, which is used over and over 
again, becomes almost free from dissolved air, and 
when at 22° C. gives a better vacuum than ordinary 
spring water at 10° C. There is a water tank at the 
bottom, a fan above it at one side and a system of 
parallel boards from which the w^ater trickles. Of 
course there is a pump, and that and the fan take 
power to run them. 

A crank device, for the purpose of preventing sin- 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 5 

gle cylinder engines stopping on the center, consists 
of a slot arranged diagonally in the crank disk, in 
which the crank-pin brasses can slide, being held at 
the outer end of the slot by a strong spring which 
overcomes the ordinary pressure of the connecting 
rod, but which permits the brasses to give way from 
the center, in case the shaft center and the crank-pin 
are in line with the crosshead. A spare brass is car- 
ried in the slot and forms a cupped plate to hold one 
end of the spring. 

A radial steam-jet exhauster has been produced, 
taking advantage of the fact that small jets are 
more efficient than large ones. The steam issues 
radially between two disks fixed at the end of the 
steam pipe. Openings through these disks lead into 
branches connected with the suction pipe through 
which the air is drawn. The thin radial stream of 
steam flowing through these openings takes up its 
full complement of air. Considerable saving of 
steam has been found. 

Kneas has made experiments showing that the ve- 
locity of steam through a well-proportioned orifice is 
nearly constant for all pressures. 

Westinghouse has invented a compound direct-act- 
ing engine combined with a compound compressing 
pump having the initial compression cylinder and a 
smaller final compression cylinder, the pistons of 
which are directly connected to those of the engine 
cylinders. 

In a new steam engine indicator by Perry, the pis- 
tons and cylinder are discarded. Instead of them 



6 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

there is a thin steel drumhead. The steam pressure in 
a box of which it is the head bulges out the disk. 
The mirror is set about half-way between the center 
and the edge of this disk, and as the pressure bends 
the disk a beam of light, reflected from the mirror, is 
developed in one direction. The drum is moved in 
another angular direction by a lever which moves the 
spot of light at right angles to the pressure direction. 
The result is that the spot of light traces a true dia- 
gram of the working of the engine. The barrel cord 
is superseded by a rigid rod connection. The dia- 
gram made by the instrument may be made perma- 
nent by tracing it with chalk or pencil, even at sixty 
turns per minute. With such an indicator, the engi- 
neer may have before him not only the water, boiler 
pressure, vacuum, and other gauges, but the indicator 
diagram also. Perry has succeeded in getting dia- 
grams at a rotation speed of 1500 turns per minute. 

The Serpollet steam carriage has been tried with 
success in Paris and in London. As shown on page 
315, Engineering, for March 13, 1891, and as made 
by J. & O. C. Pierson, of 103 Rue Lafayette, Paris, 
it is in the form of a mail phaeton. It has a boiler 
of the Serpollet type, consisting of three rings of flat- 
tened steel or iron tube. The products of combustion 
and the exhaust steam are carried out at the rear. The 
exhaust is superheated so as to be invisible. 

Shand, Mason &Co. have made a steam fire engine 
for New South Wales which raised steam from cold 
water to 100 pounds pressure in 10 minutes 24 sec- 
onds, and with 250 feet of hose sent a stream of 
water 318 feet through a lf-inch nozzle. 



BECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 7 

Steam traction wagons are to be used to haul ore 
from the San Bernardino mines in California, 100 
miles across the Mojave desert. Each engine hauls 
two trail wagons which have on them auxiliary en- 
gines, supplied with steam from the 20 H. P. boilers 
of the traction wagons. Each set of hauling wagons 
is expected to make a trip eveiy two days, hauling 20 
tons of ore. 

The Leipziger Tageblatt says that four-fifths of the 
world's steam engines at present in operation have 
been constructed within the last quarter of a century. 
France possesses 47,590 stationary engines, 7000 loco- 
motives, and 1850 marine engines ; Germany 59,000 
stationary engines and boilers, 10,000 locomotives, 
and 1700 marine engines : Austria, only 12,000 sta- 
tionary engines and 2800 locomotives. The force 
of the steam engines in operation in the United 
States is equal to 7,500,000 horse power, of those in 
England to 7,000,000, in Germany to 4,500,000, in 
France to 3,000,000, and in Austria to 1,500,000 horse 
power. In these figures the horse power of locomo- 
tives is not included ; in the beginning of 1890 the 
total number of the world's locomotives amounted to 
105,000, representing from 5,500,000 to 7,000,000 
horse power. Taking the figures as only 6,000,000, 
this gives the total horse power of the whole of the 
steam engines and locomotives on the earth of 40,000- 
000. The horse power of a steam engine may be es- 
timated as equivalent to the power of three horses, and 
the power of a horse as equivalent to that of seven 
men. The world's steam engines, therefore, represent 
the enormous total of 1,000,000,000 men, or double 



8 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

the number of workers in the world, the total popu- 
lation of the earth being estimated at 1,460,000,000 
souls. 

STEAM BOILERS. 

A marine boiler invented by Buckland, of New- 
castle, England, and known as the Stanley boiler, 
has at the bottom a cylindrical fire box, surmounted 
by the boiler proper, which has a spherical shell, cut 
away slightly at the bottom where it joins into the 
furnace. The fire box is surmounted by three com- 
bustion chambers, built as portions of a sphere, the cen- 
ter of which coincides with that of the boiler shell, 
and communicates by tubes passing through the 
outer shell with the smoke box, which completely 
surrounds the shell. The smoke box is divided into 
two parts, the lower communicating by large tubes 
with the inside of the fire box, to permit part of the 
gases of combustion to go into this lower part and 
then back by small tubes into the combustion cham- 
ber, thence through a third set of tubes to the upper 
part of the smoke box, and thence to the stack. The 
evaporation from and at 212° F. on a l|-hour's run was 
11.07 pounds of water per pound of coal. 

The Babcock and Wilcox principle of sectional 
boiler construction has been adapted to marine boilers, 
the chief alteration being the adoption of smaller 
tubes and of vertical tubes at the side, instead of the 
brickwork of the land boiler. In place of each of the 
four-inch inclined tubes forming the bulk of the heat- 
ing surface of the land boiler, there are four l|-inch 
tubes. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 9 

Yarrow & Co. of Poplar, England, are getting good 
results with a tubular boiler having a, horizontal upper 
chamber or reservoir and two lower chambers, each 
of the latter occupying the space at the sides of the 
fire chamber. The reservoir is connected to the 
lower chambers by numerous straight lengths of pipe, 
composed of weldless steel tube. The parts of the 
chambers into which these are inserted are flattened 
so that several rows of tubes can be used. 

Seller's water tube boiler consists of two drums, 
each of which is practically a quarter cylinder, con- 
nected between their flat sides by tubes bent to a quar- 
ter circle and having one long and one short arm. 
These sectors lie across the fire chamber, one at its 
bottom, at the back, resting on the back of the bridge 
wall, and the other in front and considerably higher, 
the connecting tubes running lengthwise of the fire 
chamber. There is a third cross drum, which is 
cylindrical and lies at the back and upper part of the 
combustion chamber and is connected with the upper 
sector by horizontal and with the lower one by verti- 
cal tubes. A lengthwise drum is connected with the 
upper sector and with the cylindrical drum by large 
necks ; and suitable partitions of fire brick cause 
proper circulation of the gases of combustion. 

A new form of furnace for boilers is known as the 
" Spanish" type, the plate being of uniform thickness 
and the form something like, that of the Purves' fur- 
nace, there being a series of separating ridges pro- 
jecting into the w^ater space at nine-inch intervals. 
Between these ridges the material is disposed in the 



10 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

form of a catenary curve, the object being to secure 
uniform resistance to collapse throughout the length 
of the furnace. This long curve also presents no cav- 
ity for the undue accumulation of scale. A furnace 
of this kind 37 inches outside diameter, 7-16 inch 
thick, was tested under cold water pressure and re- 
sisted 1140 pounds per square inch before deforma- 
tion took place. 

A lengthwise-ribbed boiler tube has been tried in 
this country during the past year. The ribbed tubes 
have about double the heat-receiving surface exposed 
to the flame by the ordinary tube, and the same out- 
side or discharging surface. The Paris, Lyons, and 
Mediterranean Railway is fitting forty engines with 
these tubes. 

In a new automatic water gauge for marine boilers 
the closing gear consists of a small cylinder mounted 
on a trunnion on the gauge standard, and connected 
above the piston to a point between the top gauge 
cock and the glass, and below the piston to the 
boiler. The difference in the total pressure on the 
sides tends to keep the piston at the bottom of the 
cylinder, in which position the cocks are open. 
The piston rod is connected by a link to the gauge 
cock handles, which are arranged with a quadrant, 
permitting their being worked independently of each 
other and of the closing gear. On the bursting of the 
glass the pressure on top of the piston is removed, 
and the closing of both the steam and the water cocks 
is practically instantaneous. 

Goodbody has designed an apparatus for prevent- 



RECORD OP SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 11 

ing and separating the incrustations of steam boilers 
while aiding in the lubrication of the engines. 
There is injected into the feed water a hydrocarbon, 
which may be the residuum of petroleum distillation, 
a neutral product, or a sub-product of the distillations 
of schists containing hydrocarbon oils. There is an 
injector, the operation of which is based on the dif- 
ference in density between the hydrocarbon and the 
water. Where there is no feed water heater, the dis- 
incrusting apparatus is in front of the check valve 
and slightly above it ; but if there is a heater, the 
anti-incrustator is placed in front of the latter, so as 
to prevent the formation of scale in the heater as well 
as in the boiler. 

Kellner proposes to line steam boilers with an anti- 
acid coating of slate ground with water glass, then 
with blocks or slabs of ground slate and Portland 
cement mixed with water glass. As to the non-con- 
ducting properties of such a coating he says nothing. 

Cork as a boiler and pipe covering has been tried 
on ocean steamships, with the result of lowering 
some temperatures 100° and even 124° F. 

The immense steam pipes for the great Ferranti 
dynamos are composed of smaller pipes bunched to- 
gether. 

A furnace-mouth protector, consisting of a tubular 
casing with water circulation, is intended not only to 
protect the furnace mouth, but to act as a feed water 
heater. 



12 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

In a new smoke-annihilator the air, after passing 
under the fire grate, goes through an opening at the 
bottom of the fire-bridge and, coming in contact with 
the carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons which have 
escaped combustion, consumes these gases, rendering 
them useful by utilizing the heat produced in their 
combustion. There is a drop arch at the point where 
the heated air enters, and this, becoming incandescent, 
maintains the temperature required for the combus- 
tion of the carbonic oxide to carbonic acid. 

Lavington F. Fletcher read a report to the members 
of the Manchester Steam Users' Association, going to 
show that the idea that nearly every explosion is at- 
tributable to shortness of water has had a very mis- 
chievous tendency. The results of his tests, which 
were very elaborate, go to show that showering 
cold water on furnace crowns when red hot did not 
lead to their rending by sudden contraction either 
transversely or longitudinally, nor did it cause a 
violent generation of steam which the safety valves 
could not control and the shell could not resist. On 
the injection of the feed when one of the safety 
valves was seated and the other open, the pressure rose 
in 1J minutes from 6 pounds to 12 pounds, and 
when both safety valves were seated it rose in f of 
a minute from 6 pounds to 27 pounds, and then 
gradually fell off. On the injection of feed when 
the safety valves were blowing, no increase of pres- 
sure could be observed. On the contrary it began to 
fall, and the handle of the pressure gauge to glide 
back. There was no collapse, there was no rent, 
either in the furnace tubes or in the shell, and no 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 13 

movement of the boiler whatever. . . . The ex- 
periments, as far as they have been carried, lead to 
the conclusion that in the majority of cases turning 
on the feed, when delivered behind the fire bridge, 
would be the best thing to do. It would cool down 
the boiler, restore the water level, re -invigorate the 
plates of the furnace crown, and be a safeguard to 
the attendant while he was drawing the fires. 



GENERAL MECHANICAL 
ENGINEERING. 

The science, or art, or profession of mechanical 
engineering is now made subservient to so many 
others, and the triumphs and everyday successes of 
these latter are so dependent upon the achievements 
of the mechanical engineer, that it seems hardly fair 
to the latter to chronicle under the heads of "Steam 
Engineering," " Marine Engineering," " Locomotives," 
" Machine Shop Practice," " Wood Working and 
Textile Machinery," etc., progress which is so largely 
due to the inventive and constructive ability of the 
mechanical engineer. Yet the very fact of this depart- 
ment being so extended is the reason for referring 
the reader to the particular heads mentioned for a 
chronicle of so much that is interesting and useful 
that has been done during 1891. 

There are, however, some lines which by reason of 
their more limited application, and the comparatively 
small number of those engaged in them, may still be 
chronicled under the general head of Mechanical 
Engineering ; and these will be found below. 



14 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

NEW GAS AND PETROLEUM ENGINES. 

In the direction of gas and oil motors, the Otto 
builders count among their latest achievements the 
adapting of their engines for the use of liquid gaso- 
line, and are now fitting them for coal oil in a manner 
which dispenses with pumps, intermediate chambers, 
etc., and their complications. This engine has been 
put upon the market by the German factory at Deutz, 
and should very shortly be in the hands of Americans. 
The same builders are now exploiting the use of pro- 
ducer gas with gas engines. The gas is made upon a 
continuous process by air and steam passed through in- 
candescent coal. From the generator it goes to a 
scrubber for cleaning and cooling, and thence to a 
small holder, from which the gas engine draws its 
supply ; and in case the production of gas exceeds 
the consumption, the holder, when full, strikes a stop, 
cutting off steam and air from the generator, and 
thus suspending the making of gas until the holder 
drops. 

Tests (made by Prof. K. Teichmann, of the Royal 
Technical School of Stuttgart, and M. F. Bocking, 
Chief Engineer of the Rhenish Society for examining 
steam boilers) show that a twin cylinder Otto engine 
working with producer gas developed a brake power 
of 52 horse power, with a total fuel consumption, in- 
cluding that used for the super-heating boiler, of 1.6 
pounds per brake horse power, or barely 1.3 pounds 
per indicated horse power ; the latter, however, be- 
ing a figure not strictly comparable with the figures 
of indicated horse pow r er from steam engines ; the 
brake horse power figures being those which should 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 15 

be compared with brake horse power figures from 
steam engines. 

An automatic starting gear for gas engines has 
been brought out by Crossley Brothers of Manches- 
ter, England. 

Mr. Edward Butler, of Greenwich, Eng., is said to 
have produced a petroleum motor tricycle which will 
run 40 miles with one gallon of oil. 

AN ETHER ENGINE. 

Susmis' ether engine has a horizontal motor with 
four single acting cylinders united in pairs and in- 
closed in a cast iron chest filled with glycerine. The 
generator, placed under the engine, consists of two 
horizontal heating tubes connected by a bundle of 
curved tubes holding the ether and surrounded by a 
cylindrical iron plate jacket filled with water, forming 
a thermo-syphon that effects the distillation of the 
ether. Above this jacket there is a receptacle con- 
taining glycerine, which has a series of pendant tubes 
entering the water of the thermo-syphon. The gly- 
cerine becoming heated in the tubes, rises to the sur- 
face, circulates all around the motor, and returns to 
the lower part, making the same journey over and 
over again. The vapor of ether reaches the motor 
through a tube surrounded by a second tube contain- 
ing water at the lower part and glycerine at the up- 
per, and which prevents condensation of the vapor 
before it has acted upon the pistons. A metallic 
cut off, traversed by the ether added, prevents the 
mixing of the water and glycerine in the heating 
tube. The glycerine is kept at a temperature above 



16 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

the condensing point of the ether ; and as the two 
liquids have no affinity there can be no mixing even 
in case of a leak. Further, the glycerine is a good 
lubricant for the machine. On leaving the cylinders 
the ether vapor goes to a aero-condenser in which 
there is an air current that has been cooled by the 
atomization of water. 

Another machine of the same inventor receives 
steam from a boiler, and after operating in the cylin- 
ders this steam flows through a curved pipe into a 
condenso-generator formed of a series of vertical 
tubes inclosed in the cylinder containing the ether. 
The steam condenses in these tubes, and the heat 
that it gives out develops vapor of three atmospheres 
pressure in the ether ; this operating a small motor 
like the one described, and then returning and being 
condensed in the aero-condenser. 

THE PNEUMATIC HOIST. 

The range of hoisting apparatus has been supple- 
mented by the introduction of the pneumatic hoist, 
which is intended to reduce the time and labor re- 
quired to lift a load, and incidentally to increase the 
amount of work that a machine, tool, or other appli- 
ance can turn out by its use. It has these features of 
the ideal hoist, that it requires no manual labor to 
operate it, and that it lifts a load readily. It consists 
of a length of hydraulic iron tube, reamed out in- 
side to greater smoothness than could be obtained by 
boring, and doing away with the necessity of bushing 
with brass ; to the upper end of this is attached an 
ordinary iron cap with a hook by which it may be 
slung to a trolly crane or other arrangement for giv- 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 17 

ing horizontal movement. The lower head is made 
of two castings, one of which is screwed to the end 
of the cylinder and has a lug to receive the screw end 
of the valve which is for supplying the compressed 
air for lifting. To the lower ring is attached a head 
which is held in place by four small studs and nuts, 
and which contains the stuffing box, for examining 
the piston and its packing without disturbing the 
hoist. The piston is a cast iron head with a follower 
plate and a leather cup-ring. The lower end of the 
piston rod has a swivel to let the ring be turned to 
any desired position. The piston is raised by air 
pressure and lowered by the weight of the load, or by 
its own weight. The valve consists of a body, a 
stem, a cap, and a small spring to keep the same in place. 
The capacity of a three-inch diameter hoist with 80 
pounds pressure is 450 pounds ; of an eight-inch with 
the same pressure, 3200 pounds. From this, the 
duty may be readily figured out*. 

HUGE STEAM CRANE. 

Ransomes & Napier, of Ripley, Eng., have made a 
huge steam crane, called a Titan, for the Madras Har- 
bor Works, where it will be used in carrying 32- 
ton concrete blocks. Its weight, without water bal- 
last or load, is 152 tons ; with ballast 170. It cannot 
only slew around its own center, but travel on a 
curved road on the break- water ; being carried upon 
twelve wheels arranged as two four-wheel bogies, 
having four driving wheels between them. It will 
travel about a 90-ft. curve. Its arm travels in a 
curve of 50 ft. radius, and the slewing is stopped 
gradually by springs. 



18 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

A balanced steam hydraulic crane acts by a head 
of water alone, or by a combination of steam and 
water, the steam pressure acting on the inclosed mass 
or piston of water. In the latter case the water is 
used over and over again. 

Ravelli has produced a helicoidal windlass in which 
he employs screws of very close pitch, at the risk of 
increasing the loss of work due to friction, but with 
the intention of decreasing the liability of their run- 
ning down backward. There is a very large disk, 
having a screw thread upon its edge or cylindrical face 
and gearing with pins on gear wheels borne by the 
ends of the hoisting drum. Stoppage may be se- 
cured under full load in raising or in lowering, with- 
out a brake, and the handle cannot fly back. 

A gigantic elevator for the North Hudson Co. 
Railway, Weehawke*n, N. J., is in a tower with a 
base 45 by 60 feet, reaching to 197 feet above the 
w T ater level, the cars having a lift of 148 feet. There 
are three cars, each 21^- by 12 \ feet. The hydrau- 
lic elevated cylinders are 38 inches diameter and two 
inches thick with 50-inch flanges. The car moves 
six feet for every one of the piston travel. Each car 
has a capacity of 20,000 pounds raised 200 feet per 
minute ; each will carry 135 passengers. These ele- 
vators are worked by the combined gravity and pres- 
sure system, by water from an overhead tank in 
which there is compressed air. 

Briquettes are to be made from Victorian brown 
coal if the process can be made to pay. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 19 

A new diamond-tooth stone-cutting saw has been 
produced by Kohler. In it the method of holding 
the teeth is to take a small bar of soft steel, bent 
into a very narrow V, and putting a diamond be- 
tween its branches, to solder them while hot, and ex- 
pand them so as to constitute a disk, in which the dia- 
mond is held without any soldering material. There 
are in the saw disk as many cavities as there are teeth. 

A sectional bushing has been devised by which to 
draw stuffing box packings, when they get hard, 
without removing or injuring the reel. 

Thos. R. Almond, of Brooklyn, has devised a new 
flexible metal tube, which he showed at the meeting 
of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and 
which consists practically of a round wire spiral, 
having a spiral worming of triangular wire. 

Weldless steel chains are produced from a solid 
cross-shaped bar through which at proper intervals 
holes are drilled ; then the block is notched roughly 
to the shape of the links, flattened to prepare it for 
hollowing out the links, and stamped to round them 
up. Next the blank is punched through and the 
links parted. Such chains are free from defective 
welds, and being of steel are stronger than those of 
iron. 

A method of making rolled steel tubes of desired 
size inside and out, and finished both inside and out 
suitable for plating, is to take a hard smooth mandrel 
of the least diameter that it is intended to have the 



20 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

tubes, but longer than the greatest length desired ; 
to cover it with oil and black lead, insert it in the 
tube, then roll the tube through hard surface rolls 
until the desired outside diameter is reached, after 
which the mandrel is removed. Compound tubes, 
that is those of one kind of metal covered or lined, 
or both, with another kind of metal, have also been 
produced. Those lined with another metal are made 
by taking a hard mandrel of the diameter required 
for the inside of the lining, placing the lining on the 
mandrel and rolling it down to the diameter of the 
latter, then slipping the tube that is to be lined over 
the lining, and rolling it down to cover that, after 
which the mandrel is slipped out. If the tube is to 
be covered as well as lined the mandrel is left inside, 
the metal cover is slipped over the tube, and rolled 
down until it is closed thereon. It is believed that 
excellent boiler tubes may be thus produced, by 
covering steel tubes with copper, which latter is 
placed next to the water to avoid corrosion. In mak- 
ing a joint in the tube plate, the copper acts as a 
ferule between the tube and the head. 

Handling coal by steam is now done by placing 
between the hatches of an ordinary collier a small 
high speed engine driving shafts which are tempo- 
rarily bolted at one side of each hatch. Each shaft 
carries three grooved friction spools. Workmen by 
bearing down on a treadle cause the friction wheels 
to engage the spool, which in turn lifts the bucket 
from the hole. Steam is supplied by hose from port- 
able boilers on the deck. About thirtv minutes are 
required to place the plant on deck and ready for 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 21 

service. A collier which formerly required 72 men 
24 hours to unload, in now unloaded by this method 
in 12 hours with only 30 men. 

A new style of conveyor for coal and like materials, 
instead of employing the usual sprocket wheels for 
effecting motion, has pawls for pushing the chain along, 
a second pawl taking hold before its lever lets go. 
The buckets are borne on wheels, an axle extending 
across from track to track between each pair of 
buckets while the buckets themselves are pivoted 
upon the wheel-supporter bearing at each side. 

A new piano-tuning pin consists of a bell-crank 
lever pivoted at its angle, and having a string fastened 
to one of its arms. The other arm has passing through 
it an ordinary machine screw which bears upon the 
main frame and which by the aid of an ordinary 
screw-driver may be made to put greater or less ten- 
sion on the wire. 

A new lock-stitch sewing machine has the under 
thread supplied from the spools on which it is bought, 
not only saving time but preventing waste of thread. 

A new way of lubricating loose pulleys is by tubes 
extending from the rim to the hub. These tubes be- 
ing threaded internally, a grease candle being in- 
serted in one is kept close to the hub by a follower, 
which may be screwed down the tube. When the 
candle is exhausted, the follower may be screwed out 
and a new candle put in. 

Forked rivets are now used for making and repair- 



22 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

ing belting, harness, etc. ; they are driven into the 
leather, pushing it aside, and then can be clinched, 
without any reduction of the section of the leather. 
The points are turned over very fully and bent back 
into the material so that there are no sharp edges left. 

A wire loop holder by Strohbach is for making a 
secure loop in a wire rope in a few minutes, by an un- 
skilled workman. The holder consists of a cast iron 
block with four holes ; the rope is passed through the 
end of the block and out by one of the side holes, 
then curved around to form the loop and passed 
through another side hole and out at the end ; there 
being a tapered space between the two parts of the 
rope in the block. A cast iron wedge, hollowed at its 
sides to fit the rope, is passed into this space and 
driven home by a screw plug which passes through 
the fourth hole in the block. When this wedge is 
driven home it grips the rope firmly against the sides 
of the block. To take the wear and preserve the rope 
a lining of galvanized iron is placed inside the loop. 



HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING. 

In the department of hydraulic engineering by far 
the most important work is that now going on, look- 
ing to the utilization, at a very early date, of at least 
a portion of the immense power now going to waste at 
Niagara. The Cataract Construction Company has 
been a long time getting ready for this work, and 
has availed itself of the services of the most eminent 
consulting engineers of this country and Europe, In 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 23 

order to be sure that every desirable plan shall be 
properly presented by constructing engineers for the 
consideration of its consulting experts, it offered 
prizes for the best plans for the successful utilization 
of the power and its mechanical transmission from 
the place of generation to neighboring, even some- 
what distant, manufacturing sites. 

Of the many plans offered in competition, only 
seven were electrical, going to show that electrical 
engineers are not yet ready for a problem of this 
magnitude. Of these, two suggest alternating cur- 
rents of from 5000 to 10,000 volts, and others propose 
direct currents of from 1600 to 4500 volts. 

In Cuenod, Sautter & Co.'s project for taking the 
whole 125,000 horse power, they propose two ar- 
rangements, the second of which provides for the 
machinery upon the surface, using turbines with suc- 
tion pipes and vertical cases ; fifty for regular work- 
ing, six for reserve, each producing 2500 horse power 
at 136 turns per minute. The dynamos are above 
ground ; each upon the shaft of a turbine which is to 
be supplied by a 67-inch wrought iron pipe and to 
have a 12 -ton fly-wheel. The shaft is supported by a 
cylinder and piston in the turbine case, water under 
105| feet head acting beneath the piston. Each 
turbine has a relay governor, while the sluices or 
tunnels are worked by hydraulic pressure under the 
control of the governor. Each gallery is to have 28 
dynamos, forming four circuits, two at 2500 volts, two 
at 500, and a neutral wire. The resultant efficiency 
is 39 per cent, for Buffalo and 84 for Cataract City. 
The total cost per horse power is estimated at $12.70 
for Buffalo, and $9.88 for Cataract City. 



24 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

Vigreux and Levj^ propose three alternative plans 
for hydraulic machinery : 

(1) Groups of four axial-flow pressure turbines of 
2500 horse, which are coupled in pairs and drive a dy- 
namo each side at 300 turns ; a short supply pipe, 
8£ feet diameter, leading from a vertical rock channel, 
feeding the group of turbines. 

(2) Groups of two inward-flow pressure turbines 
of 5000 horse each, with horizontal axes, so arranged 
that each one drives a dynamo each side. 

(3) Groups of four outward-flow pressure turbines 
placed opposite in pairs or not axially coupled. 

In all three systems an ordinary pendulum governor 
acts on the distributing valve of a hydraulic cylinder 
worked by the pressure of the head which drives the 
turbines. For 120,000 horse power there are 12 
groups of turbines, one of which is for exciting and 
the others for local lighting, and there are two reserve 
groups. All 14 of the groups are to have separate 
vertical water shafts. The electric current is to be 
continuous and of 5000 volts ; the dynamos of 2500 
H. P., 330 amperes, 5000 volts. Each machine has 
two armatures of the Gramme ring type, because it is 
difficult to get more than 3000 volts with but one 
ring. The out-going conductors to Buffalo are five 
bare bars 4.6 square inches in section ; the return 
conductors the same. To transform the current at 
the far end motors are employed, driving low tension 
dynamos. The efficiency to Buffalo is to be 85 per 
cent., that of the whole electric line to Buffalo 68.85 
for high tension and 62 for low ; total cost per elec- 
tric horse power distributed $23.60 per year. 

Hillairet & Bouvier propose 13 turbines of 10,000 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 25 

horse each, each working a single dynamo, above 
ground, by a vertical shaft ; turbines to be of the 
impulse type with partial admission and to make 80 
turns per minute. For each turbine there are to be 
two vertical shafts through the rock, one for supply 
and the other for access and to carry the driving 
shaft. The dynamos are to give a maximum difference 
of potential of 1000 volts with 7000 amperes of current. 
Consumers using motors of not less than 25 horse 
power are to receive current at 1000 volts ; those 
not less than 50 H. P., and between two and three 
miles of the center of the city, 2000 volts ; smaller 
motors to receive 100 to 200 volts current. 

Popp & Riedler propose transmission by com- 
pressed air ; figuring on an initial pressure of eight 
atmospheres and final of six, the leakage being about 
two per cent. A frictional resistance of 1.2 pounds 
per square inch per mile of main is assumed, with a 
mean velocity of the air of 34 feet per second. Thus 
25,000 horse power could be carried to Buffalo by air 
of 114 pounds at Niagara, becoming 88 at Buffalo; 
there being two mains each 2^ feet in diameter, and 
the loss in friction 11 per cent. Seventy-five thousand 
horse power at an initial pressure of 199 in the same 
mains would give 18 J per cent loss ; 125,000 H. P. at 
285 pounds initial and a mean velocity of 55 feet per 
second being transmissible by the same mains. For 
25,000 horse power the cost per horse power at Buffalo 
is estimated at $12.05 per year; plus five percent, 
interest on the plant, $31.12. The commission pre- 
ferred vertical turbine axes and intermediate com- 
pressors. 

Deacon & Siemens Bros, propose groups of 12 tur- 



26 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

bines each, each of 2500 horse power, or 30,000 horse 
power in all ; each group to be supplied by a 20-foot 
vertical channel communicating through a horizontal 
channel with 12 iron supply-pipes ; turbines to be of 
the inward-flow pressure type with horizontal axes and 
suction pipe. No regulating apparatus is proposed. 
The wheels are to be six in number and to run at 195 
turns, being in two rock galleries 780 feet long, con- 
nected by cross galleries. To each turbine is to be 
rigidly attached a dynamo giving a constant current 
of 400 amperes with a potential depending upon the 
speed ; at 195 turns being 4500 volts. One generator 
is to start with voltage enough to send 400 amperes 
through the mains ; its speed increasing as the re- 
sistance increases, until it reaches full speed ; then 
another generator to be started and run a closed cir- 
cuit until its current is 400 amperes, and then to be 
switched into the trunk main. The cost per horse 
power per year at Cataract City is estimated at $12.75 ; 
at Buffalo $23.05. The committee preferred parallel 
conductors and approximately constant potential. 

Pearsall proposed to put, in an enormous open ex- 
cavation, nearly down to the level of the tail water, 
63 compressing engines in three tiers, each engine 
consisting of a vertical cylinder having valves con- 
trolled by special air motors. Three 34-inch mains 
are to carry air to Cataract City, two 30-inch mains 
to carry water. 

Lupton and Sturgeon propose the use of low pres- 
sure air, one main carrying 125,000 horse power. 
They propose 8-foot turbines of 3750 horse power each, 
of the inward-flow pressure type, with draft tube ; 
running 140 turns per minute on a hollow vertical 



Record of scientific progress. 27 

shaft. The air compressors are to be just below the 
surface, to be single acting, vertical, and 43 by 48 
inches ; eight being driven by each turbine at 80 
turns, through a horizontal shaft geared by steel 
bevel wheels. At full speed each cylinder delivers 
500 feet of cold air at 67^ pounds per square inch. 
The air is to be delivered by branch pipes into a main 
10 feet in diameter, reduced to 7 feet at Buffalo, where 
the pressure will be 60 pounds. The cost, indepen- 
dent of interest, is estimated at $7.00 per horse power 
per year. 

Ganz & Co., Buda-Pesth, propose to place each tur- 
bine and armature of the dynamo driven by it on the 
same vertical solid steel shaft ; the combined weight 
being 125 gross tons. The turbines are to be 5000 
H. P. each, of the partial flow impulse type, but at 
full flow to work as pressure turbines. The shaft is 
to be carried by a collar bearing and also supported 
by a hydraulic piston in the tail race. Alternating 
dynamos are proposed to work at 336 amperes at 10,000 
volts. There are to be 12 large alternating dynamos. 
The cable is to have a total section of 1848 square 
millimeters, the loss to be 25 per cent. Reaching 
Buffalo at 8000 volts the current is to be transferred 
to 12,800 amperes at 2000 volts. 

Escher, Wyss & Co., propose three plans. (1) A 
plant of 100 groups of air compressors above ground, 
driven in pairs by turbines of 2500 horse power, with 
vertical axes and gearing. (2) Twenty-five turbines 
each of 5000 horse power with vertical shafts to 
dynamos directly above. (3) A plant of 12 turbines 
each of 10,000 horse, with horizontal shafts, each 
driving two intermediate dynamos. The turbines 



28 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

to be directly over the tail race tunnel, in galleries 
across the tunnel, leaving the rock solid between the 
series of supply shunts. 

Rieter & Co. propose wire rope transmission by 
cables each carrying 333 horse ; pulleys to be 330 feet 
apart. The loss is said to be seven per cent, for each 
span. There are three hydraulic projects to drive 
the rope. (1) Four pressure turbines with draft 
pipes, running 180 turns, each giving 2000 H. P., and 
standing on a vertical shaft at the top of which there 
is a collar bearing on a beveled gear driving wire 
rope pulleys. (2) Four pressure turbines each of 
3500 horse, with horizontal axes and draft pipes ; 
wheels placed opposite in pairs, with collar bearings. 
(3) Two pressure turbines in each group, each of 5000 
horse, running 190 turns on horizontal axes. By the 
first project the cost of the turbines is $14.16 per 
horse power ; by the second, $4.57 ; by the third, 
$4.42. Including buildings and excavations, the 
costs are by the first, $28.16; second, $9.06 ; third, 
$8.09. The machinery for the central station for 
cable transmission is given at $3.25 per horse power ; 
of transmitting cables and mid-stations, $5.25 per 
horse power for each 330 feet ; receiving station 
$4.11 per horse. 

Vigreux & Feray propose to deal hydraulically with 
less than half the power of the station ; pumps being 
undermined in a rock gallery in three bays ; the 
wheels to be 34 feet in diameter, of impulse partial 
admission type, on horizontal axes, two being coupled 
on the same shaft ; each wheel to be 2500 horse ; 
each pair driving six double-acting pressure pumps 
with an accumulator for each set of three pumps. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 29 

The speed of pumps and turbines is to be 30 turns 
per minute. The pumps are to have plungers 17J- 
inches diameter, 30 inches stroke ; and the water pres- 
sure to be 783 pounds per square inch. 

The Pelton Water Wheel Co. proposes to use 
wheels 14 1 feet diameter, in pairs, running 60 
turns per minute ; each wheel supplied by five nozzles 
with hydraulically worked valves. For air compres- 
sing, a 21^-foot wheel would be used, running 40 
turns and having eight nozzles. The cost of water 
wheels, exclusive of excavation and erection, and ex- 
clusive also of pumps, compressors, and dynamos, is 
given at $3.90 per H. P. The wheels are to be 
guaranteed at 80 per cent, efficiency, and the makers 
expect 85. 

A company has been organized for utilizing the 
water power of Lake Superior, and constructing very 
extensive works near Sault Ste. Marie. The water 
supply here is about 122,000 cubic feet per second, 
and the power about the 236,000 horse power. It is 
proposed to build a tail race five miles long on the 
Canadian side, and a canal as long on the American ; 
each canal to be 1000 feet wide, which will be the 
greatest width in the world for such constructions. 
There will be dry docks on both sides, to be filled and 
emptied by gravitation. 

INCREASING THE SUMMER SUPPLY OF THE NILE. 

While we have been engaged on this continent with 
the problem of how to utilize what has been for so 
many centuries a most undesirable waste of water, the 
trouble has been in the oldest country in the world. 



30 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

that their wonderful stream, historic and majestic as 
it is, the scene of the rise and fall of so many em- 
pires, gives to the country about it too little water for 
its real needs during the dry season which follows its 
fertilizing flood. 

It has been officially decided that its summer supply 
is too slight and that there must be some steps to 
increase it. An International Convention met in 
December at Cairo to settle details. 

Mons. Prompt proposes four or five dams between 
Assouan and Khartoum, 16 meters high, and self- 
regulating. The river in flood will pour over the crests 
of the dams, w T hich will hold up 3500 million cubic 
meters,* the gradual discharge of which, when the Nile 
has fallen below 50 million cubic meters daily, would 
keep the low Nile at normal height. 

Willcocks proposes a dam 1200 meters long and 25 
meters high, at the base of the cataract of Assouan. 
The sluices in this dam would permit the passage of 
the entire flood. 

De Belief onds proposes a barrage about forty miles 
north of Assouan in a gorge raising the water high 
enough to permit the perennial irrigation of all 
Egypt. 

Jacquet's idea is to close this defile with a masonry 
wall 400 meters long and 20 high ; to make a new 
bed for the river on the right bank, to be closed by a 
movable dam with a lateral reservoir, 700 meters 
wide, cut out of the solid rock, to carry off the flood ; 
a lateral canal with locks for navigation, and an irri- 
gation canal having its inlet above the dam in the 

*One cubic meter equals 1.308 cubic yards, or 35.32 cubic 
feet. 



BECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 31 

left bank. The depression two kilometers east of the 
present channel up the river would be closed by a 
solid dam 1300 meters long. This would give a 
reservoir having a surface of 1400 million square 
meters and storing 7000 million cubic meters, and 
which would deliver 35 million cubic meters per day 
besides the normal low water discharge. 

DAMMING NIAGARA. 

The water in the great lakes along the frontier has 
been so low that a dam at Niagara Falls has been sug- 
gested for increasing the depth, but a Government en- 
gineer in Chicago says that if dams are to be used 
they must be placed at the outlet of each lake ; that 
a dam at Niagara Falls might raise the water in Lake 
Erie two feet, but the effect on the upper lakes would 
not exceed two inches. To raise Lakes Huron and 
Michigan a dam across St. Clair River would be re- 
quired. The only feasible way to get more water in 
the lake channels is to dig deeper. 

For several years the level of the water in the lakes 
has been steadily falling, and it is now fully two feet 
lower than it was eight or nine years ago. This 
steady fall in water has constantly tended to lessen 
the cargoes of the great lake boats, and they are now 
five to ten per cent, less than they were half a dozen 
years ago. Captain J. S. Dunham believes that the 
lakes could be treated as great mill ponds, and the 
lessening of the capacity of the outlet would result in 
backing up water which would otherwise go over the 
Falls. His plan is a very simple one. In the Nia- 
gara River below Tonawanda, where navigation ends, 
he would dump many thousand boat loads of large 



32 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

stones. It might be that some steel structure could 
also be extended to the river from each side to narrow 
the channel. The result would be to lessen the flow 
of water from the lakes and thereby increase the stage 
of water at all points. 

HYDRAULIC ENGINEERING IN INDIA. 

The hand of progress seems to be no respecter of 
centuries. Not only Egypt and the Nile are looked 
upon by the hydraulic engineer as but fair fields for 
his skill, daring, and experience, but India, the home 
of Buddha, the land of the Mahatma, studded with 
temples of religion that date back for ages, is consid- 
ered as requiring to be brought up into a proper con- 
dition of sanitation and comfort, whether its native 
inhabitants desire it or not. 

There is proposed in the southern extremity of the 
peninsula of India an engineering work of great mag- 
nitude and importance ; being the turning eastward 
of the Periar, one of the streams of the mountains of 
Travancore, into the Vergel, from which it is separ- 
ated bv a mountainous wall. The idea has been 
broached many times during the last century ; but it 
is now taken up by the Madras Government. There 
is to be a dam 150 feet high, 60 feet wide at the base, 
and tapering to 15 feet. This will raise the waters so 
as to make them flow back over the course of the 
river some 10 miles. At a point 7 miles back they 
will be led through a tunnel 5700 feet long and 7 by 10 
feet in section. There have been spent already 2,000- 
000 rupees ; there will be required about 10,000,000 
rupees, or $4,000,000. Of the 38 miles of channel, 
22 miles are already dug. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 33 

The great Tansa Reservoir dam for the water sup- 
ply of Bombay was expected to be completed in April, 
nearly fifteen months in advance of the contract time. 
It is two miles long, 115 feet high, and 106 feet wide 
at the base. It contains 11,000,000 cubic feet of 
masonry. It was carried out by T. Craigie Glover, 
with 10,000 native masons. It is 60 miles from Bom- 
bay, with which it will be connected by iron pipes. 

THE GREAT CROTON DAM. 

New York is to have a great dam, to rise 159 feet 
above the Croton River, the foundations going down 
70 feet. Its length between flow lines will be 1 736 feet, 
and its cost is estimated at $3,650,000. The site for 
this, the Cornell dam, is about 1J miles above that 
which had been adopted for the Quaker Bridge dam, 
and 2f- miles below the present Croton dam, and will 
give an additional drainage area of 21 square miles, 
and storage capacity of 30,000 million gallons. It 
will take five years to build. 

RIVER AND HARBOR IMPROVEMENTS. 

The work of improving Tampico harbor is pro- 
gressing rapidly. In October, jetties had run 700 
feet in length, and the depth was 24 feet. The dis- 
tance between the two jetties is 1000 feet. The 
river when in flood has a volume of 225,000 cubic 
feet per second, and will deepen the bar 25 feet. 
The average current is five miles per hour. Since 
June 1, 1890, there have been gained 1400 feet of 
beach either side of the jetties. The mattrasses of 
brush are 70 to 85 feet wide at the bottom, and 30 at 
the top. It is claimed that when this work is com- 



34 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

pleted Tarapico will be the one safe deep-water harbor 
on the Atlantic coast. 

The work of blowing up the " iron gates of the 
Danube " is now going on, and is expected to be 
done by 1895, when Black Sea steamers will be seen 
at the wharves of Pesth and Vienna, having touched 
at Belgrade. 

Mr. E. G. Holden, of Fulton, Tex., has invented 
a device for scouring water-ways to increase their 
depth. Powerful pumps project streams of water 
and air under great pressure from pendant vertical 
pipes arranged in rings at right angles to the keel of 
the boat. The discharges of the water pipes alter- 
nate with those of the air pipes. 

The difficulties of navigating the Missouri River 
are confined to two places — the mouths of the Osage 
and Grand rivers, which are about 150 miles apart 
— and the Government is trying to overcome them. 
At the mouth of the Osage an effort is to be made to 
confine the channel for about nine miles. The Mis- 
souri is very wide there, the waters spreading over 
low lands, and there has been no distinct channel. 
The depth of the water has been increased from 4^ to 
7 feet. Piles 38 feet in length are forced into the 
sand and clay in five minutes by a powerful stream of 
water forced through a pipe extending to the point 
of each pile. The stream clears away the sand and 
clay, and the pile sinks of its own weight. It is be- 
lieved that after the work has been finished the river 
will be navigable during nearly all the year except 
winter. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 35 

AN IMMENSE LUMBER FLUME. 

A large flume has been built in California for 
carrying lumber from the place of felling in the 
Sierra Nevada to the plains below. It is 52 miles 
long, of timber ; in section V-shaped, with a right 
angled vertex. The V is 21 inches deep for the most 
part, 43 inches across the top. At the lower ter- 
minus it is 64 inches wide by 31 deep. The sides 
are of 1^-inch boards and the structure is carried 
on trestle work nearly all the way ; in some places 
130 feet high. The steepest grade is 1200 feet to 
the mile for 1000 yards, the fall being 730 yards in 
this distance. About nine million feet of lumber is 
used in its construction. 

SHATTERING SUBAQUEOUS ROCKS. 

The Lobritz system of demolition of rocks under 
water without explosives consists in shattering the 
rocks by the action of a heavy mass let fall from a 
convenient height and cutting like an artillery pro- 
jectile. Experiments near Edinburgh show that a 
weight of two tons shod with a steel point and fall- 
ing 5.5 meters (16.04 feet) broke more than 0.113 cubic 
meter (0.148 cubic yards) of hard rock per blow. A 
machine working at Port Said, having four steel- 
pointed battering rams, each of four tons weight, 
raised from 1| to 6 meters, and giving in all 200 
to 300 blows per hour, worked ten times as fast as 
the ordinary system in conglomerate rich in gypsum. 
The expenses, including repairs, were 8850 francs 
($1770) for 1600 cubic meters (2092 cubic yards), 
making the cost 5.52 francs per cubic meter or 



36 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

$0.84 per cubic } r ard, not including insurance, interest, 
and depreciation. Later results give only $0.65 per 
cubic yard. 

IMPROVED WELL LINING. 

An East Indian, Ganga Ram, has produced a new 
way of making wells, consisting in radiating and inter- 
locking bricks of a special shape and design, and 
which when laid only one brick thick, dry or in mud 
and lime, serve the purpose of an ordinary well lining. 
Each brick has both a dovetail mortise and a tenon 
to grip those on either side and above and below, 
the mortises and tenons breaking joints through- 
out. No cement or tie rods are necessary ; the lin- 
ing may be thinner than by the ordinary method ; 
the inflow of sand is reduced to a minimum without 
keeping out water ; and skilled masons are not re- 
quired for building. Just how the bricks are to be 
made in perfect shape is not yet laid down. 

IRRIGATION. 

Those who make the desert to blossom as the rose, 
may well be considered as among our greatest bene- 
factors ; and those who enable the successful and 
profitable cultivation of our desert and seemingly 
desert lands, which only want an abundance of water 
to make them laugh with a harvest when tickled with 
a hoe, are entitled not only to the gratitude of the na- 
tion but to the material success which they will no 
doubt gather from their enterprise and foresight. 
Irrigation is now a branch of study at some of the far 
western colleges ; and improvements in the manner 
of its accomplishment are sought for with eagerness 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 37 

and applied at a rate which shows how truly their 
benefits are appreciated. 

Professor Hilgard, director of the Agricultural 
Experiment Station at Berkley, California, says that 
the under flow of the great gravel beds in the southern 
part of California is proving to be of increasing im- 
portance as a source of irrigation supply. These 
gravel beds are natural storage reservoirs which may 
be emptied and replenished, with due regard to the 
rainfall and drainage. 

Irrigation in the Western States is now being done 
by straight rather than by curved channels ; and many 
of the old curved ones have been straightened ; the 
channels being checked up so as to give a uniform 
velocity. 

Instead of the ordinary wooden flumes used in 
mining districts for irrigation in this country, it is 
purposed to use a flume of galvanized iron, with its 
upper edge stiffened ; the flumes to be nearly circular 
in shape and supported in cast iron brackets placed in 
timber supports. 

South Dakota is talking up irrigation in a public 
way ; the State investing this year $200,000 in arte- 
sian wells. The farm in which a well is located 
must deed one acre about the well to the township, 
and right of way through the farm, so that the water 
can be delivered to the other farms. 

Spouting wells have been bored in Washington ; 



38 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

and it is expected that thousands of acres of arid 
land may be reclaimed in Central Washington by 
this means. 

WATERWORKS. 

In a compound plunger hydraulic pump by Woakes, 
the novelty consists in employing the almost un- 
limited pressure obtainable from a high column of 
water (augmented if necessary by a hydraulic ram or 
press at the top) to work a small diameter piston or 
plunger at the bottom of the shaft or well. The 
down or working stroke of the ram is thus effected ; 
the up or non-working stroke is by a small water wheel 
or other engine. The same principle might be used to 
compress air in the bottom of a shaft. 

The American Waterworks Association com- 
mittee on standard specifications for cast iron water 
pipes has issued a report. Among other items, the 
pipes must stand 300 lbs. per square inch for all sizes 
less than 12 inches in diameter, and 250 for all above 
this size ; and should be hammer-tested with a ham- 
mer weighing three pounds, and having a 16-inch 
handle. Any pipe varying 10 per cent, in thickness 
is to be rejected. 

The firm of Henry R. Worthington reports that a 
very marked departure in large waterwork plants is 
the increase in the number of vertical engines coming 
into use. 

At the waterworks in Utica, there is employed an 
aeration system, consisting of a series of vertical jets 
forming a large fountain. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 39 

Meriyweather has brought out a hydraulic sewer- 
flusher, consisting of a length of iron pipe closed at 
one end while the other is fitted with a coupling for 
attachment to a hose. A series of jets arranged 
around the circumference of the pipe, which latter is 
dragged through the sewer, sprays and cleanses the 
walls. 

The weir keepers on the Seine and other French 
rivers have an automatic flood alarm, consisting of a 
float one foot in diameter, fixed at any desired dis- 
tance from the weir and rising with the water level. 
When the height of the water reaches a certain point, 
bells are rung by electric arrangement at the weirs 
down stream, thus warning the keepers to look out 
for a flood. 

Stechner has invented an instrument by which the 
profile of a river bed can be taken automatically from 
a boat at the rate of four to six miles per hour. The 
apparatus consists of a curved arm, hinged at its upper 
end and so long that the lower curved part trails on the 
bottom of the stream. The deeper the stream the 
greater the inclination of the arm ; and the variations 
may be registered on a rotating drum. On the Elbe 
soundings were made over 297 miles in ten days. 

A Dodd water wheel of 24 inches diameter has 
been tried under a head of 158 feet with a one-inch 
nozzle and no governor ; being much like the Pelton 
wheel except in the shape of the buckets, which have 
their corners curved downward, so as to partly sur- 
round the nozzle. Its efficiency was from zero at 
1500 turns to 86 per cent, at 725 turns. 



40 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

Durozoi has devised an apparatus of the ram kind 
which can use a minimum head of water and can 
force the liquid in a single jet of pipe, and can even 
take up water by suction. The water enters a cylin- 
der which has a valve in its bottom; when the veloc- 
ity of the water is at a certain point it closes the 
bottom valve and raises a piston above the cylinder ; 
this piston acting upon the piston of an ordinary 
suction or force pump. 



MARINE ENGINEERING AND 
SHIPBUILDING. 

There was a time within the memory of many of 
my readers when shipbuilding and marine engineer- 
ing had no connection ; when indeed the science of 
Naval Architecture was a yet unbroached subject. A 
record of progress in shipbuilding in those days need 
not have been associated with a chronicle of any ad- 
vance in steam engineering or in the science and art 
of iron and steel construction. But in these days of 
floating war monsters and peripatetic caravanseries 
of the great deep, it is practically impossible to con- 
sider one of these topics without devoting more than 
a mere passing glance to the others. Hence it is that 
the tftles " Shipbuilding " and " Marine Engineer- 
ing " have been treated together ; although as far as 
possible matters relating merely to outlines of the hull 
or to peculiarities of rigging have been kept apart 
from those which included items of armament or of 
motive power. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 41 

Under the same general heading, too, it has been 
considered desirable to place some short records of 
recent achievements in the way of rapid transit across 
the great waters ; and of special endurance of ma- 
chinery in voyages involving the semi-circumnaviga- 
tion of the globe almost without a stop. 

NEW TYPES OF VESSELS. 

A recent Clyde-built iron ship, La France, is the 
largest sailing vessel afloat. She is 375 feet long, 49 
feet broad, and 33| feet deep. Her after mainmast, 
which is the largest of the five, is 167 feet above the 
deck. The length of the lower yards is 82 feet, of 
the upper from 75 feet to 77 feet. Her bowsprit is 
50 feet long. The fifth mast is said by the captain to 
assist the working of ship greatly, as she tacked very 
easily. On her first voyage, which was from Cardiff 
to Rio Janeiro, she reached a speed of 12^ knots an 
hour. She was then laden with 6000 tons of coal. 

It is worthy of note that during the past year 
there have been built upon the Clyde two center- 
board yachts, of the American type, modified by G. 
L. Watson. The stem has a concave outline ; the 
bow is of canoe type. The center board has the out- 
line of a half moon with the lower limb considerably 
flattened. 

The Herreshoffs have built a novel craft. From 
the fact that the peculiar construction of the keel 
would not admit of its touching the floor of the shop> 



42 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

the boat was hoisted in mid-air by derricks and lowered 
into the water thereby. 

The boat is 25 feet in length on the water line and 
about 39 feet over all. She is seven feet beam and has 
for her keel about 875 pounds of iron and two tons 
of lead. Her stern is very similar to that of the 
Gloriana, and has an overhang of about 15 feet. She 
is a single-sticker without a bowsprit, and will only 
carry a mainsail and jib. The keel is nearly square 
from the side view. It is of iron, while on the bottom 
are two tons of lead molded into the form of a cone 
and attached to the iron, making a knife-blade keel or 
center-board. Without this load of iron the hull of 
the craft looks like a dory. 

The boat was probably built as an experiment, and 
if it is successful a larger one will probably be built. 
There is no cabin, a roomy cockpit being at the stern 
that will accommodate about five persons. 

The Dilemma on her trial trip is said to have 
showed wonderful speed. 

Mr. Thomas Clapham has built a boat with a center- 
board and no keel or outside ballast, but with false 
bilges, to give her stability. The false bilge is im- 
mersed only when the boat is heeled, and, although it 
does not add to her light displacement, it gives her 
great sail-carrying power. The bilge w T ill be open to 
the cabin inside, and can be utilized for locker room. 
The boat is to have jib and mainsail with no bowsprit. 
The principal difference between this boat and the 
Dilemma is that in gaining stability Mr. Clapham de- 
pends upon the peculiar shape of the bilges, while Mr. 
Herreshoflf pins his faith to a lump of lead hung from 
the bottom. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 43 

FAST TORPEDO BOATS FOR BRAZIL. 

A torpedo boat made by Messrs. Thornycroft & 
Co., of Chiswick, for the United States of Brazil, is 
150 feet long by 14 feet 6 inch beam, and in that respect 
is similar to the vessels recently built by the same firm 
for the Argentine Republic. The armament, how- 
ever, is somewhat different, there being four torpedo 
guns suited for the 14-inch Whitehead torpedo, instead 
of three suited for the 18-inch torpedo, as in the Argen- 
tine boats. Two of these torpedo tubes are mounted 
on racers on deck, and two under deck in the bows, 
arranged not in the ordinary way, but with gear en- 
abling them to be protruded through doors in the 
skin of the boat. These doors when closed form a 
surface continuous with the skin of the vessel, thus 
presenting no obstruction to the seas and lessening 
the broken water and the spray which is so easily 
illuminated by the electric light. When the torpedo 
guns are run out the torpedo is guided beyond the 
line of the stem, thus obviating the risk of deflection 
arising from the pressure of the issuing gases between 
the torpedo and the skin of the ship. In addition to 
this armament, the little vessel carries two three- 
pounder quick-firing Nordenfelt guns, mounted on 
recoil carriages. The machinery consists of two sets 
of triple compound engines, supplied with steam by 
two Thornycroft water-tube boilers. The trial trip 
consisted of two parts — first, a series of six runs on 
the measured mile, with a load of 19 tons on board, 
during which a speed of 25 knots was guaranteed by 
the builders ; and secondly, a continuous run of two 
hours' duration, during which a speed of 24 knots was 



44 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

guaranteed. The results of the six runs were as 
follows : 

Knots. Mean Revolutions 
per Knot. 

First run, with tide 27.692 1,065.5 

Second run, against tide 23.529 1,289 

Third run, with tide 28.346 1,064 

Fourth run, against tide 23.377 1,290.5 

Fifth run, with tide 28.346 1,062.5 

Sixth run, against tide 23.529 1,282.5 

The mean of these speeds computed by the Admi- 
ralty method being 25.858 knots, Messrs. Thorny- 
croft's guarantee was more than fulfilled. The mean 
number of revolutions required to do a knot was 
found to be 1,165.4. The speed attained on these 
runs was the more satisfactory, in that it increased 
gradually throughout, the mean of the first pair of 
runs being 25.610 knots, of the second pair 25.861 
knots, and of the third or last pair 25.937 knots, or 
practically 26 knots. At 1.18 p.m. the vessel was put 
upon her two hours' run, and at 3.18 it was found 
that the mean number of revolutions of the screws 
amounted to 59.174, which, being divided by 1,165.4, 
the number required to complete a knot in still water, 
gives a distance of 50.775 nautical miles, or 58.4 statute 
miles, covered in the two hours. This showed an 
average speed of 25.387 knots, which, it is claimed, is 
the greatest distance ever run and the highest speed 
maintained by any vessel in the time. During the 
run steam was blowing off from both boilers and the 
pressure of 210 pounds per square inch was maintained 
with ease, there being an air pressure in the stoke- 
hold of only 1^ inch of water. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 45 



A THIRTY-MILE-AN-HOUR BOAT. 

The Bathurst, one of six torpedo boats built by 
Yarrow & Co. for the Argentine Government, is 130 
feet long, 13^ feet beam, 76 tons displacement, with 
14 tons load ; has 1500 square feet heating surface 
of boiler, makes eight tons of steam per hour at 
a pressure of 200 pounds, and consumes only 2|- 
pounds of coal per horse power per hour. The 
engines are four-cylinder quadruple expansion, of 
1230 indicated horse power ; and the average speed 
of two hours' run is 24.426 knots, or 28.1 statute miles 
per hour. The maximum speed over a measured mile 
was 26.086 knots, or a little over 30 miles per hour. 

BRITISH TWIN-SCREW TORPEDO BOAT. 

The British Admiralty has intrusted Thornycroft 
& Co. with the construction of a twin-screw torpedo 
gunboat, 230 feet long by 27 feet beam, and which will 
have a total displacement of 810 tons when fully 
equipped and ready for service. The principal dif- 
ference between this vessel and the others of her class 
is that she will be fitted with the Thornycroft boiler, 
and that the indicated horse power is to be 4500 in- 
stead of 3500, as in the case of the vessels fitted with 
the " marine locomotive " type of boiler. 

NEW STEAMER FOR THE CONGO. 

In the early part of 1891 Messrs. Thornycroft & 
Co. were intrusted by the Baptist Missionary Society 
with an order for a new steamer for mission work on 
the Congo. The vessel, now named the Goodwill, 



46 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

is of the same type as the Peace, which was built 
for the Society by Messrs. Thornycroft in 1881. 
The Peace, it will be remembered, was recently 
forcibly requisitioned by the Congo Free State, she 
being the only craft on the river which had a suffi- 
ciently light draught (1 foot) for their purpose. 

To avoid the possibility of being again in the un- 
pleasant predicament of being without a steamer with 
which to maintain communication with their brethren 
at distant stations, the Society decided to place an- 
other steamer at Stanley Pool. 

After due consideration they decided on the screw 
turbine system, the weight of the machinery being 
very small as compared with paddle engines of the 
same power, an important consideration when the 
cost of overland transport is so serious. 

The new steamer is 84 feet long and 13 feet beam, 
and draws two feet two inches when laden with cargo. 

On the official trial made on the Thames in October 
the vessel obtained a speed of ten miles with full load 
onboard. The Goodwill is fitted with cabins fore 
and aft and affords ample sleeping accommodation 
for eight persons. It has a pilot house, chart table, and 
steering wheel on the upper deck. 

The missionary, Rev. Geo. Grenf ell, who has super- 
intended the construction of the vessel, lays great 
stress upon a special feature of the design, which is 
that from his position on the upper deck, he can, by 
means of levers, drive the engines of the vessel; hav- 
ing at the same time under his eye the steersman and 
fireman. The vessel is fitted with the Thornycroft 
water-tube boiler, a type which was originally adopted 
for the Peace on account of its portability. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 47 

The Goodwill has been designed and built so that 
it can be taken to pieces and packed into 64-pound 
parcels (the load of a native), and from 1000 to 1200 na- 
tive porters will be required to cany it from the coast 
to Stanley Pool (a distance of about 230 miles), there 
to be re-erected and launched. 

DOUBLE DECK PROPELLER FERRYBOAT. 

The Pennsylvania Railroad Company's new double 
deck propeller ferryboat Cincinnati is the first double 
deck propeller ferryboat to appear in New York 
waters. 

Some of her dimensions are as follows : length 
over all, 206 feet ; length molded, 180 feet ; length 
on water line, 202 feet ; beam over guards, 65 feet ; 
beam molded, 46 feet ; depth amidships, 17 feet ; 
draught, ten feet three inches ; displacement, about 
841 tons. The engines were built at the Pennsylvania 
shops at Hoboken. There are two compound steeple 
engines connected directly with a shaft running the 
entire length of the boat. With 120 revolutions a 
minute, the engines are expected to develop 1000 
horse power, with a speed of twelve knots an hour. 
The engines have Canfield balanced valves. 

The two boilers are 16 feet long, ten feet diam- 
eter, and have 100 square feet grate area. They 
carry a pressure of 100 pounds, but have been tested 
to 160 pounds. There are two corrugated furnaces in 
each boiler. The propeller wheels are eight feet six 
inches diameter, with 11 feet pitch. The boat has a 
steam steering gear, with two engines, one in each 
end of the boat, and a hot air heating and ventilating 
system. The light is furnished by one dynamo of 



48 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

175 lights of 16 candle power. In addition there is a 
small engine and dynamo to light the interior of the 
hull in the daytime, and this will be connected with 
the signal lamps to be used in emergency, or in case 
of accident to the main lighting / plant. Watertight 
collision bulkheads are provided throughout. 

FAST FISHING STEAMER. 

A twin-screw steel steamboat for the fishing trade, 
being constructed by the Harlan & Hollingsw r orth Co. 
(Robert Grimshaw, supervising engineer), is 230 
feet long, 32 feet beam, 40 feet width of deck, 9| 
feet extreme draught, with triple expansion engines 
and every appliance which science and experience can 
suggest, for good speed, ease and steadiness of running, 
comfort of passengers and convenience of all con- 
cerned. Her guaranteed sustained speed is 18 miles 
per hour through the water, with 900 passengers and 
40 tons of coal. The engines are of the condensing 
type w 7 ith independent circulating pumps, triple ex- 
pansion, with 18, 26, and 40-inch cylinders, 22-inch 
stroke, receiving steam at 160 pounds boiler pressure 
and making 155 turns per minute, developing at that 
speed 1250 H. P. The lines of the hull give speed, 
carrying capacity, and stiffness. The upper house is set 
inboard about four feet all around to give space for the 
fishermen. Towing bitts will enable the Al. Foster 
to take care of any disabled vessel which she may en- 
counter ; while ample coal-carrying capacity will 
make her suitable for long coastwise journeys. 

The White Star cattle steamer Nomadic is a twin- 
screw steel vessel of 5750 gross tons capacity, 460 feet 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 49 

log, 45 feet beam, 35 feet deep. The three decks 
upon which the cattle are housed are cemented over 
to form a water-tight floor within which connecting 
gutters are sunk for drainage. Footholds for the ani- 
mals are provided by heavy wooden strips lengthwise 
of the vessel, and crosswise at fixed intervals. The 
cattle are separately stalled, and 1200 can be carried. 
The engines develop 3400 horse power at 65 turns. 
Fresh air is supplied and the foul air removed by fans 
at the rate of 80,000 cubic feet per minute. 

The first screw ferryboat on the Pacific coast 
will be run between San Francisco and Sancelito. 
It will have three decks and will accommodate 3000 
people. 

The largest turret ship in the world was launched 
last year at Chatham, England ; being H. 31. S. 
Hood. Her floating weight is 7500 tons, length 380 
feet, breadth 75, draft of water 26 feet forward and 
28 aft, displacement 14,150 tons, indicated horse power 
13,000, speed in knots 17^ ; armament four 13^ inch 
breech loading guns in turrets, ten six -inch quick fir- 
ing guns, ten six-pounder quick firing guns, nine three- 
pounder quick firing guns, twenty-four torpedoes and 
boat, field, and machine guns. The cost will be about 
$4,500,000. 

The steam launch Norwood made, on a public trial, 
a mile in about two minutes 12 seconds, or over 27 
miles per hour, when the safety valve spring gave 
out, lowering the pressure. 

The Vamoose made a similar test over a measured 
mile, covering four miles in 2:50, 2:30, 2:30, and 2:35, 



50 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

respectively, or an average of 2:36£. This is an 
average of 23 g 1 ^ statute miles an hour for four miles. 

IMPORTANT NEW VESSELS. 

Work has been begun on the big Cruiser No. 6, at 
the Union Iron Work^ San Francisco. She will be 
the largest vessel ever built on the Pacific coast, 
being 340 feet long, 53 feet beam, and drawing 2l£ 
feet when ready for sea, on a displacement of 5500 
tons. The contract calls for 20 knots per hour for 
four consecutive hours, with 13,500 horse power en- 
gines. The coal-carrying capacity is 1300 tons, which 
will enable her to steam 13,000 miles at a ten-knot 
speed. She will have a steel deck, twin screws, and 
schooner rig. In the main battery there will be four 
eight-inch breech loading rifles, in two barbettes, 
and ten five-inch rapid firing guns. There will be also 
fourteen seven-pound and six one-pound rapid firing 
guns, and four Gatlings ; besides six torpedo tubes. 

The coffer dams of Cruisers 9 and 10, building at 
the Columbian Iron Works, Bethlehem, will be filled 
with cellulose. The living-rooms and store rooms 
will be painted with cork-paint, which keeps the 
ship dry in warm moist climates. 

The first steel vessel ever built on Lake Michigan 
was launched March 14, in Chicago. Her length is 
308 feet, beam 40, depth 24£. 

By August 1, 1893, Cramp & Sons of Philadel- 
phia are to deliver Cruiser No. 13, at a cost of 
$2,690,000. She is to be much like No. 12, and is de- 
signed for a constant speed of 22 knots per hour with 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 51 

20,500 horse power. Her coal-carrying capacity is to 
be 2000 tons, which would enable her to steam around 
the world at a ten-knot rate. She is to have three 
screws, one center and the others forward a little, to 
one side and above. The length of hull is to be 400 
feet on the mean load line, breadth of beam 58 feet 
2^ inches, depth of hold from top of main deck 
beams to inner bottom 29 feet If inches, displace- 
ment 7350 tons. There will be eight double-ended 
main boilers, in four water-tight compartments, and 
two single- ended auxiliary boilers on the berth deck. 
The working pressure will be 160 pounds. There 
will be three sets of triple expansion vertical inverted 
cylinder engines, with cylinders 42, 59, and 92 inches 
diameter, and 42 inches stroke. There will be a 
sloping armored deck, four inches thick near the 
sides and two and a half in the middle ; and next 
the ship's side for its full length, a five foot wide 
coffer dam filled with woodite, or other water-ex- 
cluding substance. The battery will be one eight- 
inch, two six-inch, and twelve four-inch breech-load- 
ing rifles ; sixteen six-pound and eight one-pound 
rapid firing guns, four Gatling guns, and four torpedo- 
launching tubes. 

The steamer Scott, of the Cape Mail Line, has smoke 
stacks 120 feet high above the grates, giving a draught 
of three-fourth inch of water pressure. Her speed is 
19 knots. Her length is 502 feet over all, 460 feet on 
the water line, 54|- beam, 37|- deep ; tonnage 7000 ; 
draught 23 feet with 2800 tons of coal. This vessel 
could clear the floor of the Brooklyn Bridge, which 
is 119 feet above high water. 



52 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

An entirely new type of vessel, called the whale- 
back, has made its appearance in our Western lake 
waters, being in the shape of tow barges and steam 
propellers. They are round decked, flat bottomed, 
and ended up like the pointed end of a cigar ; but the 
hawseholes in the bow increase their resemblance to 
a pig, which is not diminished by their wheelhouse 
or turret, and by the railing that runs along their 
tops. The water washes over them, not against 
them. They have made successful voyages across the 
Atlantic, loaded with wheat. 

Alexander McDougal, of Superior, Wis., is the 
inventor, and the American Steel Barge Company 
owns the patents and the plant. 

The steam cruiser 25 de Mayo, built for the Argen- 
tine Government, showed on trial with natural 
draught 21.237 knots per hour for six hours, devel- 
oping 8700 indicated horse power. With forced 
draught the mean speed was 22.43 knots, and the 
horse power 13,800. With her full supply of coal 
she could steam 2000 knots at full speed, with natural 
draught ; and at the most economical speed, 900 to 
1000 knots. 

The new vessels building for the Cunard Co., will, 
it is reported, be ready by the summer of 1893, and 
their speed is guaranteed at 21 knots in the open sea. 
The Fairfield Co., which is to build them, offered ves- 
sels to make 22|- knots, but this would be at the sacri- 
fice of passenger room. There will be in the new ves- 
sels accomodations for 600 first-class passengers, or 
nearly one-third more than the Teutonic or Majestic. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 53 

Rumors are current that these new vessels are to 
make 22 knots, with a spurting capacity of 24. 

RAPID OCEAN PASSAGES. 

The Hamburg American steamer Furst Bismarck 
passed Sandy Hook September 10, having made the 
passage between Needles and that point in six days, 
12 hours, 58 minutes, the fastest passage yet made be- 
tween New York and Southampton. Her daily runs 
were 411, 451, 450, 452, 460, 464, 360 miles. This 
ship made the trial trip from New York in six days, 
14 hours, and seven minutes from Southampton, break- 
ing the record not only in this line but for maiden trips. 
The distance was 3086 miles ; the average speed 19£ 
knots per hour. The best day's run was 498 miles. 

The Majestic completed June 10 a voyage that 
would have been the best on record had she gone over 
the same course that the City of Paris did when she 
made her record run of five days, 19 hours, 18 minutes. 
The Majestic took a southerly course of 2850 miles, 
and made it in five days, 22 hours, 20 minutes ; her 
average speed being 20.023 knots per hour. Her best 
day's run was 502 miles. 

August 5, the Majestic came into New York, hav- 
ing made the trip westward in five days, 18 hours, and 
eight minutes, the distance logged being 2777 knots. 
For one hour of the time only the port engine was 
running. The two engines developed 19,500 horse 
power, and the screws made an average of 78 turns 
per minute ; the coal consumption being said to have 
been only 220 tons a day. 



54 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

The White Star liner Teutonic has reduced her 
record to five days, 21 hours. 

As an instance of rapid traveling around the globe, 
the steamer Empress of Japan left Yokohama August 
19, and made the voyage to Victoria, B. C, in nine 
days, 19 hours, and 20 minutes. Her mails were 
brought by a special Canadian Pacific train, leaving 
Victoria August 29, and reaching Rockville, on the 
St. Lawrence River, in 77 hours, 20 minutes ; — 2803 
miles, at 36 miles an hour. The New York Central 
Railway took them to New York, 353 miles, in six 
hours, 58 minutes, or over 50 miles per hour. Ninety- 
five miles of this run are said to have been made in 
90 minutes. Some of the mails arriving at New 
York were transferred to the steamer City of New 
York, which made the voyage to Queenstown in five 
days, 22 hours, 50 mintues ; thus making the passage 
from Yokohama to Queenstown in 20 days, about 
10,000 miles of distance, and considerably more than 
half around the world in these latitudes. 

The 11,000 mile sailing ship race from Calcutta to 
Scotland, between two Scotch sailing vessels, was won 
by the four-master Trafalgar of 1696 tons, over tho 
Ardencraig of 2072 tons. 

A large steamer, the Tekoa, has steamed at full speed 
12,059 nautical miles without even slowing down. Her 
carrying capacity is 6250 tons dead weight. She has 
triple expansion engines 27, 43, and 73 by 45 inches. 
She had to stop for coal at Teneriffe, otherwise she 
would have made her full run from London to Auck- 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 55 

land, 13,772 miles. The engines were in good condi- 
tion on arriving. The average speed from London to 
the Australian coast was ten knots ; from London to 
Auckland 58 days, two hours. 

Bessemer proposes to make plates for shipbuilding 
thicker at their edges, this being possible by his fluid 
process of rolling. Such plates were used on the 
Midland railway years ago. 

The dynamite cruiser Vesuvius is said, by the au- 
thorities, to have failed ; and they recommend that 
she be turned into an ordinary torpedo boat. She is 
not fitted as a gun platform even if the dynamite gun 
was a success ; her magazine and a great portion of 
the length of her guns are exposed to destruction by 
shells, and she steers badly. 

A screw vessel has been built in Scotland, having 
sheer legs on deck, so as to enable the vessel to be in- 
dependent of dock sheers in loading or unloading. 

Beaumont proposes screw propulsion with non-re- 
versible engines, by a feathering screw; but the 
principal objection to the plan is that a right-hand 
screw blade when turned 180° about its axis is right- 
handed as before. 

An aluminum boat has been tried on Lake Zurich. 
It weighs half a ton, being about half the usual 
weight of a boat of the same size. It carries eight 
persons, and with a two-horse petroleum motor makes 
six miles an hour. 



56 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

During the past year there has been brought into 
use a type of compound independent air and circulat- 
ing pumping engine in which the air pumps are sin- 
gle-acting and vertical, worked by a beam operated 
by a rock-shaft from the direct-acting pumping en- 
gine, the high and low pressure steam cylinders be- 
ing worked by a Blake adjustable valve-gear while 
the pump is in operation ; the water valves being of 
extra large area to permit of high speed — 250 feet 
piston speed per minute having been reached. 

The steering gear of the steamship Teutonic is of 
a novel character. In its main feature it resembles 
a cast steel horizontal spur wheel, 18 feet in diame- 
ter, movable about the rudder head, and connected 
to a tiller, keyed on the rudder head, by arms made 
up of layers of flat springs. These take up the shock 
of the sea. The spur wheel is worked by steam 
steering engines. 

Experiments in great variety have for some time 
been going on in the various navies of the world with 
anchors of ■ different kinds, and among those that 
have been tested with specially favorable results is 
one now in use aboard several of the new Goverment 
cruisers. This anchor, which is made of cast steel, 
has its crown and flukes rotate on a pin joining them 
to the shank head, the construction being such that 
if the pin should break, the anchor will still hold and 
perform the required function, while the shank can- 
not draw out and the anchor be lost, as the shank 
head is enlarged and works against the round 
shoulders inside the crown. When let go from the 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 57 

ship, in striking the bottom it " bites " t immediately- 
after strain is brought upon the chain, this being ir- 
respective of any particular position in which it may 
chance to strike, owing to the shape of its crown. 
Both of the flukes engage at once, thus securing 
what is the great desideratum, namely, a tremendous 
holding surface. 

Mr. Beauchamp Tower has invented an apparatus 
for providing a steady platform for guns, etc., at sea. 
The platform is suspended on gimbals on the top of 
a hopper-shaped pedestal, standing on a round, hol- 
low pillar, rising up from the vessel's deck. The 
part that in ordinary gimbals has a ring, has here two 
gaps cut for the gun. One end of each arm from 
the gimbal moves in a bearing attached to the top of 
the hopper-shaped pedestal, this bearing having all 
the motions of the ship, the other end forming a bear- 
ing on which the platform rests. These arms are 
hollow, and the bearing contains water-tight oscillat- 
ing joints, so that a supply of high pressure water 
can be sent through the hollow gimbal arms to the 
platform to work the mechanism. Projecting down 
the platform, and attached to it, are four cylinders, 
one at each corner ; out of the top of each projects 
a ram which works freely, not water-tight, in a collar 
at the top of the cylinder, each ram being attached 
by a connecting rod to the pedestal. If water under 
pressure enters in one of the cylinders, it would press 
the ram out of the cylinder, and so cause the platform 
to be inclined in the gimbals. There being four cylin- 
ders, the platform can be inclined in any direction. 
There is a water-tight bearing to diminish the friction. 



58 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

The North German Lloyd steamers use as an anti- 
corrosive for ships' bottoms, Rahtjen's composition, 
the same as is used by the British navy. The cost of 
painting a vessel of 1800 tons register two coats is 
only about $250, the vessel running a year without 
docking. The compound dries as quickly as applied, 
and the vessel can be put into the water at once it is 
painted. 

Lacquering ships' bottoms to prevent them from 
corroding has been tried with success in Japan. 
Twelve hundred square feet of the bottom of the 
cruiser Fmo-Ken were treated, and after fourteen 
months the condition of the bottom was so good that 
the remainder was similarly treated. Three years 
after the first treatment the vessel was docked again 
and the bottom found to be in good condition. 

The method of application is to scrape the bot- 
tom of all yellow rust and impurities not formerly ad- 
herent ; then inclose the bottom by canvas screens up 
to the water line, to enable the temperature to be 
raised above freezing in winter. The lacquer is ap- 
plied with a wooden spatula and spread with a soft, 
flat animal's-hair brush. One man can go over 500 
square feet in eight hours. The first coat is nearly 
pure lacquer ; but subsequent coats contain mica and 
kaolin. After three to five coats a special anti-foul- 
ing lacquer is added, this containing a poisonous 
mercurial salt. The whole process takes from six 
to ten days and costs thirteen cents per square foot. 

Labat, of Bordeaux, has constructed three slips for 
the broadwise docking of vessels, at Bordeaux, Fou 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 59 

Tchiou and Rouen, each comprising three parts, an 
inclined plane, a cradle, and a tractive apparatus. 
That at Rouen is 90 meters long, and can receive ves- 
sels 95 meters in length, and weighing 1800 tons. 
The slope is one in five ; the width in the hauling di- 
rection 31.3, requiring from two to five hours to as- 
cend, according to the weight of the vessel. The 
cradle may be divided lengthwise so as to take two 
vessels of unequal length, or one long one. The 
traction is by chains fastened to movable pulleys, to 
which there is attached a compensating cable, so as 
to give an equal strain to all the chains. The motor 
is of 50 net horse power. 

The Schjott oil distributer on a vessel launched by 
the Laxevaag Ship Building Co., Norway, consists of 
a plate iron reservoir, from which a pipe proceeds 
along the side of the vessel as near the water line and 
as close to the bows as possible. This may be con- 
nected to the water closet pipe, which is both cheap 
and. practicable. In the reservoir is a valve which 
can be opened at will more or less, and whereby the 
distribution of oil can be regulated. On opening the 
valve the oil flows with great regularity until the last 
drop is used. 

Still another plan has been brought forward — this 
time by an English ship officer — for spreading oil on 
stormy seas with a view to abating their violence, any 
kind of crude oil being adapted to the purpose, though 
seal oil has the preference, and, as the apparatus is 
designed to distribute the oil in a uniform and con- 
tinuous flow from the bows of the ship, the greatest 



60 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS* 

possible economy and effectiveness are claimed to be 
secured. The oil is contained in a tank connected 
with a cylinder placed in the f orepeak of the ship, and 
in such a position that it will be slightly above the 
water line ; from the cylinder two small copper pipes 
lead out through the bows on either side, and the oil 
is allowed to pass just over the water; and although 
the outlets of the pipes are but the sixteenth of an 
inch in diameter it is asserted that the amount of oil 
which thus escapes is sufficient to bring to a state of 
calmness the most turbulent waves. It is in the 
cylinder that a steel piston works, forcing the oil 
several feet beyond the bows — about seven gallons 
of oil in the tank and five in the cylinder lasting, it is 
said, four hours, w T ith both jets steadily running. 



LOCOMOTIVES. 



These are the days of the iron horse ; and as much 
attention is being paid to his development in speed, 
endurance, and economy of keeping, as the most en- 
thusiastic lover of the equine race pays to lowering 
the record each year. Those in authority have at last 
come to the conclusion not only that no one type is 
best for all conditions, but that perhaps there is no 
one type yet produced which is the best for any one 
set of conditions. Accordingly we see the American 
models tried in more or less modified conditions abroad, 
and the English and Continental types borrowed from 
in the endeavor to improve the American locomotive. 
At present the competition is most eager, particularly 
in the direction of compounding. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 61 

AMERICAN COMPOUND LOCOMOTIVES. 

The past year has been noteworthy in this country 
for having been a period of great development of the 
compound locomotive, one establishment having re- 
ceived orders for over 100 since January — four of 
these orders coming from a single railway company. 
All these were of the Vauclain type, which has four 
outside cylinders, the high pressure being above the 
low on each side, and the valve chest for each side 
being inside and alongside of the cylinders. The 
valve is of the piston type, consisting of a hollow 
block with cylindrical rims, fitting in a hollow cylinder 
with apertures registering with the rims of the plugs, 
leading to and from the ends of the cylinders from 
the steam pipe and the exhaust pipe. The steam 
enters the high pressure cylinder and drives the pis- 
ton therein, on the return stroke passing through a 
circular groove in the center of the valve, and being 
discharged through the exhaust port and the exhaust 
pipe. The same operation takes place in both ends of 
the cylinder. The valves are fitted with simple ring 
packings inserted by springing them into grooves in 
the plug. A committee of the Franklin Institute 
reports that there is very little force required to re- 
verse the engine with the throttle open and full steam 
pressure upon the valve. The exhaust seems to be 
less noisy than with the ordinary locomotive. The 
engine rolls easily when cutting off close or with the 
reversing lever near the central position, avoiding the 
resistance of the piston to motion experienced by the 
ordinary locomotive in like adjustment. The engine 
in active service has shown economy of fuel and di- 



62 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

minished requirement for feed water, the average fuel 
saving in round trips between Philadelphia and 
Washington being 15 per cent, as compared with the 
best procurable standard engine. It will be noted 
that this type of compound engine takes steam at 
once from the high pressure to the low pressure 
cylinder, the two pistons being connected and moving 
together, no receiving chamber being needed. 

The Baldwin Works are trying a two-cylinder 
compound with an intercepting valve by Vauclain. 

The Schenectady Works have built a number of 
compounds with the first form of Pitkin intercepting 
valve, and are now working on some with an im- 
proved type of valve. 

The Pittsburgh Works are perfecting a starting 
gear. 

The Rogers Works have an intercepting valve 
which they are ready to put on any two-cylinder 
compound for which they may have orders. 

The Brooks Works have put out a compound 
Mogul with two cylinders and a new intercepting 
valve. 

The Pennsylvania Railway has completed drawings 
for two-cylinder compounds with Lindner starting 
gear. 

The Old Colony Railway has finished a two- 
cylinder compound on the Dean principle, to carry 
180 pounds, to be tested against a simple engine with 
200 pounds pressure designed by Mr. Lauder. 

The new compound engine of the R. I. Locomotive 
Works, at starting, works with single expansion 
with four exhausts per revolution, then automatically 
changes to compound. When the throttle is open ? 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 63 

steam passes through the high pressure cylinder in 
the usual manner, also to the intercepting valve, 
the piston of which is forced to close the passage 
to the low pressure cylinder and let steam pass 
into the latter through a reducing valve. The 
piston of the intercepting valve will automati- 
cally change to such position as to allow steam to 
pass from the receiver to the low pressure cylinder, 
when the pressure in the receiver is brought up to 
the desired point by the exhausts from the high pres- 
sure cylinder. The engine is changed from com- 
pound to simple at will by the engineer, by opening a 
valve connecting the receiver to the exhaust pipe, 
which allows the exhaust for the high pressure cylin- 
der to pass through the exhaust nozzle in the usual 
way. 

FOREIGN COMPOUND LOCOMOTIVES. 

F. W. Johnstone, Superintendent of Motive Power 
on the Mexican Central Railway, where coal costs 
about $11 a ton, has brought out a compound loco- 
motive in which the high pressure cylinder is 14 
inches in diameter, and the low, in which it is in- 
closed, 30f , giving the latter a net area equivalent to 
that of a cylinder 24^ inches in diameter, and making 
the ratio three to one. The stroke is 24 inches, and the 
two low pressure piston rods are coupled to the same 
crosshead as the high pressure rod. The valve dis- 
tributes steam to both the high and the low pressure 
pistons, requiring but one valve, driven by the 
ordinary link motion. The outer part distributes 
steam to the high pressure cylinder, and the inner 
section to the low, the inner section being carried by 



64 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

the outer and having one inch less travel to retard 
the point of cut off of the low pressure cylinder, and 
reduce the compression in front of the high pressure 
piston. When in the high pressure cylinder the ad- 
mission is cut off at nine inches, the low pressure con- 
tinues open up to 17 inches ; but the compression on 
the high pressure piston which would begin at nine 
inches if both valves had the same travel, does not 
take place until 17 inches in the high pressure and 
19 in the low pressure cylinder. A special starting 
valve enables live steam to be sent through a reduced 
opening to the low pressure cylinder, putting the high 
pressure piston in equilibrium and letting the low 
pressure piston act with greater starting power than 
in an ordinary high pressure engine. 

A compound locomotive recently designed for the 
Grand Trunk Railway of Canada is on the lines of 
the Worsdell and Von Borries system, with the Von 
Borries intercepting valve. The cylinders are 18 
and 28| by 26 inches. The link hangers are of 
different lengths, so that .04 cut off in the high pres- 
sure cylinder corresponds to 0.5 in the low ; and the 
latest cut off running forward is 0.75 in the high 
pressure cylinder and 0.8 in the low. 

F. W. Webb's " Greater Britain " compound loco- 
motive has two independent driving axles, one 
driven by a pair of high pressure cylinders, outside, 
and the other by a single low pressure cylinder inside 
of the frames, the cylinders being 15 and 30 inches by 
24-inch stroke. The engine is in the matter of tractive 
power equivalent to a non-compound locomotive 21 by 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 65 

24 inches. There are four 85-inch driving wheels, 
and in front a pair of 49|-inch leading wheels 
with radial axle boxes, back of them coming a pair 
of trailing wheels with a lateral play of one-half inch. 
The high pressure cylinders have the ordinary 
curved link with the valve gear outside the frames. 
The low pressure cylinder has Webb's single eccentric 
motion. The boiler has a very long barrel to permit 
both the driving axles to be put under it ; but the 
tubes are in two lengths with a combustion chamber 
between them ; the first set being 70 inches long and 
the second 121 inches. There are 156 tubes in each set, 
the first set being copper and the second brass ; tube 
diameter 2 -J- inches, fire box surface 120.6 square 
feet, combustion chamber heating surface 39.1, front 
tube surface 853, back tube surface 493, total 1,505.7. 
Grate surface 20.5 square feet ; steam pressure 175 
pounds ; weight of the engine 52 gross tons two cwt. 
of which 15 tons ten cwt. are upon each driving 
wheel. The average speed between Rugby and 
Euston was 44.59 miles per hour ; consumption of 
coal per mile per ton of train 1.42 to 1.719 ounces ; 
total train weight 382 tons, of which 305 tons were 
in the coaches, 52 in the engine, and 25 in the tender. 

A compound engine on the Northern Railway of 
France has four driving wheels connected and two 
high and two low pressure cylinders, the large 
cylinders being between the frames. This road now 
has four kinds of compound engines. Besides the 
one just described, which has parallel rods, it has a 
Woolf with tandem cylinders, a three-cylinder with 
parallel rods, and a four-cylinder without parallel rods, 



66 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

Russia is using compound locomotives. There are 
thirty-two on the Grazi-Tsaritsin Railway alone in 
South Russia. 

LUMBER LOCOMOTIVES. 

In the operation of the lumber railways in the 
Alleghany Mountains of Northern Pennsylvania, there 
are employed locomotives having three vertical cylin- 
ders, driving a horizontal shaft, geared to all the 
wheels, tender included. The shaft is jointed so that 
the longest rigid wheel base is 56 inches. Such an 
engine uses the whole weight for adhesions, and at a 
ratio of one-fourth of the weight of 60 tons would 
develop 30,000 pounds tractive power. 

A new gigantic locomotive on the St. Gothard road 
is a compound tender and locomotive, with four 
cylinders, the fuel and water carried by it serving to 
increase the friction on the rails and the consequent 
tractive power. The running gear of this long engine 
is divided into two groups, the six wheels of which 
are connected with the mechanism belonging thereto. 
The two motor groups are connected by a joint, and 
move toward each other horizontally. 

A SMOKE-CONSUMING LOCOMOTIVE. 

The Chicago and Alton locomotive equipped with 
the smoke consumer invented by A. R. Cavner does 
not differ much in appearance from others except in 
the shape of its smokestack, which is perforated with 
hundreds of small holes, and in being lighted at night 
with electricity. Its inventor says that besides con- 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 67 

suniing its own smoke, the device economizes fuel and 
reduces back pressure to a minimum. 

The extension front, extending from the flue sheet 
to the cast front door, is divided into two compart- 
ments by a light vertical partition crossing entirely 
across the front just forward of the exhaust pipe, 
thus confining all the heated gases, exhaust steam, 
etc., in the compartment next to the flue sheet, and 
having direct communication to the fire box. No 
change is made in this compartment except that the 
tips on the nozzle of the exhaust pipe are taken out. 
The exhaust opening is left full open to the area of 
opening in the saddle casting, the stack and saddle 
are taken off, and the stack opening increased to 
twenty inches in diameter. There is placed over the 
exhaust a lifting pipe, twelve inches at the bottom 
and end, tapering to fifteen at the top and forty inches 
long — a sheet-iron pipe. This pipe, twenty inches in 
diameter, sets over that, resting on top of the extension 
front. Over this is the ordinary dome casting. This 
is perforated with 2000 seven-sixteenths-inch holes 
extending half around the front side of the casting. 
On the inside of the twenty-inch pipe there is coiled 
fifty-two feet of two-inch brass pipe. 

The forward compartment of the extension front 
is used as a receptacle for the mechanism by which 
the draught is secured and power furnished to run 
the dynamo. In this compartment is located a pres- 
sure blower in such position as to admit of free 
access to the flue sheet. The pressure blower is con- 
nected by friction to a small sixteen-hand power 
rotary engine, and is also connected direct by an air 
pipe extending from the front end of the engine back 



68 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

under the truck of the locomotive to the ash pan. 
The ash pan and dumpers, having asbestos joints and 
shutting firmly, make the ash pan air tight. The air 
from the fan is drawn down through the perforation, 
and is heated to a high temperature by the exhaust 
steam and heated gases. The result by this method is 
that the fire is fanned by a constant blast of seven- 
ounce pressure, and this air is made hot by the heat 
that would be otherwise wasted. A portion of this hot 
air is conducted in pipes from the main air pipe 
through the ash pan, up through the fuel, and is 
forced into the flame from the back of the fire box 
toward the flue sheet. Circling the fire box door are 
innumerable small holes or air jets. This hot air 
uniting with the carbon is claimed to complete the 
combustion, and prevent smoke whether the engine 
is working or shut off, and whether there is a light 
or heavy fire, and to prevent gases from passing out 
of the fire box door. By means of this air pipe the 
fire box is converted into a gas retort, consuming the 
carbon and the carbonic oxide gas that would other- 
wise pass off in smoke. 

TUNNEL LOCOMOTIVES. 

The approaches of the St. Clair tunnel will have a 
grade of 105 feet per mile, and to work on them there 
have been built some very heavy Baldwin tank loco- 
motives, weighing 195,000 pounds in working order. 
There are five pairs of drivers, 50 inches in diameter, 
and no other wheels. The wheel base is 18£ feet; 
cylinders 22 inches diameter, 28 stroke ; boiler 74 
inches diameter ; firebox 11 feet long, 3 J- wide. 
The rails will be 100 pounds to the yard. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 69 

VARIOUS IMPROVEMENTS IN THE LOCOMOTIVE. 

A double-latch reversing lever has two latches, one 
in front of the other and touching, and either of 
which may be dropped into the notch in the quadrant, 
thus enabling finer hooking down than would be 
possible with only one latch. 

An audible signal for locomotive cabs, operated by 
a battery within the cab, warns in case of danger from 
switches, draw-bridges, etc. 

An injector indicator is to call the attention of the 
engineman if from any cause the injector stops work- 
ing. There is a valve in the feed pipe just above the 
level of the water when the tank is full. When the 
injector is working, the valve is held on its seat by 
its own weight and by the suction of the injector ; 
but if the injector " flies off," the steam passes down 
the feed pipe and raising the valve escapes into the 
cab in two jets sufficient to attract the engineman's 
attention. 

Some German locomotives are being fitted with ash 
pans which prevent dangers from fires by sparks from 
the ash pan. The places where the ashes lie are pro- 
tected from direct disturbance by draft, and so 
arranged that the wind cannot drive the ashes out. 
The draft compartment is made separate from the ash- 
collecting compartment. 

A smoke box protector is to save the bottom sheets 
in " long front ends " which are often burned out. It 



YO RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

is simply a layer of fire clay, over which there is a 
casting which keeps it in place. 

A new brake-shoe hanger permits endwise motion 
of the beam and shoe so that the latter remains verti- 
cal and cannot exert sidewise pressure against the 
wheel. 

A fire box door opener by Hawksworth, applicable 
to any of the ordinary old-style outside doors, is 
operated by the fireman's foot pressing a latch ex- 
tending from the deck, thus opening an air valve 
which liberates air enough to act upon a piston which 
swings the door. Closing the door compresses air 
enough to open it the next time the latch is pressed. 

A sand dryer for locomotives consists of a circular 
live-steam passage around the sand pipe where it 
leaves the box. 

The Southern Pacific Company has imported a 
plant from England for making briquettes for locomo- 
tive fuel. The machinery is being erected at San 
Francisco. 

A check chamber which will permit the examina- 
tion of check valves while steam is up and keep them 
at all times from the action of mud, consists of a 
chamber into which the checks discharge, and which 
may be cut off from the boiler by a screwed spindle 
valve. This chamber is attached to the boiler at such 
a height that the water runs into the boiler by 
gravity. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. VI 

Mr. Gustav Lentz of Dusseldorf (late managing 
director of the Hohenzollern Locomotive Works) has 
designed a stayless locomotive boiler. 

A mechanical stoker for locomotives has been pat- 
ented by John D. Ward, of Minneapolis. The inner 
sides of the tender, or coal receptacle, are inclined, 
and centrally in the bottom is a channel into which 
there extends the shaft of a feed screw, coupled at its 
outer end with a similar shaft, which has a bevel gear 
wheel, meshing into a similar wheel on a cross shaft 
in the cab, connected with a motor, to feed the coal 
by an inclined shute into the fire box. 

The Chicago and Northwestern Railway has 
abated the smoke nuisance on many of its locomotives 
by an apparatus for forcing jets of air into the fur- 
nace in sufficient quantities to complete combustion. 

The Lehigh Valley Railway is having engines built 
with steel crank pins, oil tempered and annealed. 
The same company is having two sets of locomotive 
tires treated in the same way. 

The Manhattan Railway Company of New York is 
having locomotives made with steel frames slotted out 
of the solid on the plan of the English ; they will 
also have wrought iron drivers. Just how w^ell a 
rigid frame w r ill run on an elastic track, time alone 
will show. 

The pistons for the low pressure cylinders of the 
new Lehigh Valley compound engines are double 



^2 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

plates of cast iron with ribs between weighing less 
than the pistons for many smaller cylinders, a 30-inch 
piston weighing only 388 pounds without the rings, 
or 426 with. A 20-inch piston of this type weighs 
214 pounds ; a 28-inch 342 pounds. 

The Eastern Railway of France is experimenting 
with a new type of locomotive boiler, with a double 
barrel, the lower part being filled with tubes and 
water, and the upper with steam. The upper and 
lower shells are connected by three openings with 
flanged necks between. 

The desire of the railway companies for locomotives 
which shall haul fast trains of 300 tons seems to be 
best met by the Mogul and ten-wheel engines. 

Some of Baldwin's ten-wheel engines are to be 
tested against " 20 by 26 " English ten-wheelers in 
Australia, on the Melbourne express. 

A feed-water heater and purifier for locomotives 
has been tried on the Long Island Railway. There 
is above the shell a supplemental dome into which the 
feed water is delivered, falling by a pipe to a mud drum 
under the boiler, there settling its impurities. As fast 
as required the water leaves the mud drum and rises 
by another pipe which passes around the boiler, and 
goes through a vertical pipe through the center of the 
supplemental dome to the water space of the main 
shell. 

A sand box worked by air is used on the Burlington 
road. There is a piston working loosely in a cylin- 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 73 

der which has a cap with an adjustable screw, that 
acts as a stop for the end of the piston. A pipe 
leads from a small valve in the cab near the throttle 
lever and within easy reach of the engineer. When 
air from the main air drum is let into the pipe it 
passes under the piston, which is raised by the pressure 
until it brings up against a stop in the cylinder 
cover. When the piston has been raised to this 
point a small side opening in the piston rod lets 
the air pass down the center of the hollow piston 
rod and through the plug valve, the opening in the 
plug being reduced at the point of the valve. As the 
air passes through the opening in the pipe it not only 
blows the sand which is ahead of the valve but by 
suction causes the sand to flow, even if wet. There is 
no rod connection to the sand box and instead of the 
usual sand-rod handle there is a small plug valve. 

The Baldwin works have taken up the manufacture 
of wrought iron pistons on the same plan as employed 
by them for locomotive driving wheels. The 17 
compounds for the Central Railway of Brazil are 
fitted with them. 

A variable exhaust nozzle which is being used on 
the Union Pacific Railway permits the area of discharge 
to be enlarged. There is a stationary ring with in- 
wardly projecting flat teeth having between them 
spaces equal to their own area ; next to this station- 
ary ring there is one having similar inward pro- 
jections which may be brought into line with those on 
the stationary ring, leaving spaces between the teeth 
on both rings, or may be brought so as to cover the 



74 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

spaces between the teeth of the stationary ring, so as 
to reduce the effective area by the amount between 
the teeth. 

NEW LOCOMOTIVE FUELS. 

Italy has commenced to use lignite as fuel on her 
railways, instead of importing all her fuel. As there 
are beds of lignite in Italy the change should prove 
economical for the kingdom. These railways are 
trying lignite prepared by the Sapori process. 

The Oroya Railway and the Molhendo, Arequipa 
and Pamiapumo Railway of Peru have decided to use 
fuel oil instead of coal. The first has several locomo- 
tives running with the new fuel, and the second has 
commenced altering its engines. Fuel oil is not crude 
petroleum but a residuum with a fire test of about 
300° Fahrenheit. The amount of oil used is rather 
less than 50 per cent, of the weight of coal ; this 
is by reason of the greater regularity of f?ed. In 
tunnels the oil is a great boon, doing away with 
smoke and sparks. 

Several years' supply of the oil have been contracted 
for. The burner used is cast in one piece without any 
movable parts, hence should be less easy to get out 
of order than that used on the Grazi-Tsaritsin Rail- 
way, which has over 20 parts, all accurately finished 
and fitted. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 75 



KAILWAYS— PERMANENT WAY. 

Experiments in the direction of improving the 
permanent way of steam and urban railways are less 
easy to make and test, and the adoption of improve- 
ments which have been tested and improved is much 
less easy of accomplishment, than is the case with 
the locomotives and rolling stock. But there is no 
track the constituents of which do not succumb to 
the continued action of time and traffic, and of course 
experiments are being made and improvements intro- 
duced from year to year ; however, advance is more 
gradual than radical. The tendency seems to be 
toward the introduction of heavier metal in the rails, 
and efforts are being made to introduce metal ties 
and chairs, and improved joints and methods of 
fastening down the rails. 

Thos. C. Clarke, in a paper before the American 
Society of Civil Engineers, concludes that the only 
radical way of curing the difficulties with railway 
tracks is to return to the old form of continuous rail 
and continuous bearing ; steel rails permit of the 
former. The lengthwise bearer must be stiff enough 
to carry the load each side of the wheel, so as to 
limit the pressure to two tons per square foot. The 
rails must break joint with the bearers ; the fasten- 
ings must be so that the rails may be quickly removed 
and replaced by new ones, but must be able to hold 
for a time a broken rail. The bearers and rails 



7G RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

should be united by light metallic gauge ties ; both 
the bearers and the gauge ties should be easily- 
tamped, and there must be no difficulty on curves. 

Flanged rails are being introduced in India instead 
of the double-headed type, for the purpose of using 
steel sleepers. 

A new railway spike is rolled in plates, having for 
their cross section the lengthwise section of the spike, 
thus doing away with the deformation usually caused 
by making the head on the ordinary spike. The new 
spike has a sharp edge, and cuts the fibers of the 
wood as it is driven, allowing their separated ends to 
impinge closely against the sides of the spike. There 
is, above the head, an anvil-like projection forming 
an extra head to receive the blow of the hammer in 
driving. Six of the new type, as compared with the 
standard English type, required 25,935 pounds to 
draw them from pine ties as against 14,235 ; and in 
elm 58,850 pounds as against 35,300. To show the 
power of this spike in holding the rails from spread- 
ing, two rails were spiked down to ties — one with 
standard spikes and the other with the new rolled 
ones ; the two ends of the jack were pointed and 
made to bear on metal blocks between the rails, and 
the new spike held so firmly as to crowd the other 
out. 

A new rail joint is a suspended malleable iron 
girder on ties 12 inches apart. The bed plate of 
the girder has a camber ; its web is carried both 
below and above the base of the rail, and the portion 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 77 

of the girder above the bed plate rests against the 
side of the rail head, making a rail brace to keep the 
line of the rail ends. The bed plate is a channel for 
the rail base. The rails are held by clips seizing the 
flanges, and are bolted under the bed plate, but not 
in contact with the rails or their vibrating or wearing 
parts ; so that no bolt-holes are necessary in the 
web of the rail. To prevent rail creeping, lugs are 
cast in the bed plate of the joint, with correspond- 
ing slots in the flanges. There is nothing to resist 
contraction and expansion of the rail. 

Steel ties that were placed in the track of the 
Chicago and Western Indiana Railway nineteen 
months ago have been examined by the roadmaster. 
The track had a very heavy traffic, but the road- 
master reports that the ties not only were safe, 
smooth, and pleasant to ride on, but were a money- 
saving device. He also observed that there was less 
oscillation and vibration in the locomotives and cars 
passing over them, especially in heavily loaded cars 
of yielding material, like grain. 

The engineer of the K Y. C. & H. R. Railway 
reports as the results of the experiments with Hart- 
ford steel ties, for over a year, that on the basis of 
fifty-five cents for a wooden tie and $3.00 for a steel 
one, there is eight to twelve per cent, saving in the 
steel. 

A continuous railway crossing is a device intended 
to take the place of the open frog at railway grade 
crossings, a continuous rail being secured for traffic 



78 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

in either direction. On a good foundation there lie 
timbers upon which is placed the frame of the frog : 
a steel girder, in outline a parallelogram, with its 
angles conforming to those of the crossing, but at 
each corner the girder is bent into a loop. Upright 
in this loop, with its foot in a step firmly riveted to 
the bottom of the box and its upper end well held, is 
a five-inch shaft, carrying a cap corresponding in 
form to the head of the rail. Rotating the shaft 
causes the cap to complete the rail across the gap in 
either direction at will. All four of the caps are 
turned at once, to an equal degree, by suitable mech- 
anism by the operator. Detector bars prevent turn- 
ing the movable parts of the rail while a train is 
passing, and no signal can be given until the parts 
are in proper position. 

A new type of street railway rail, which seems 
better than any other to fulfill the desired conditions, 
is duplex, each one of the two sections composing it 
being of T or rather of hammer-head section, the two 
breaking joint, so that each section is in fact the 
fish-plate for the other. They are laid in chairs about 
five feet apart, the webs of each section fitting into 
slots in the chairs and the latter being connected by 
steel tie-bars, absolutely preserving the gauge. The 
cost of metal and of laying are less than for other 
types of street rail of the same vertical stiffness ; the 
metallic connection between the sections is practi- 
cally continuous, and the tie-bars may if desired be in- 
sulated from the rails so as to permit any system of 
electric traction to be used with advantage. These 
rails are laid on Fourth Avenue, New York, below 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 79 

the Cooper Union, some of them having the chairs 
laid on concrete slabs, others having them spiked 
to cross-ties as an experiment suggested on the 
part of the Company owning and operating the line. 

A new double-acting track-drill acts both on the 
forward and on the return stroke of the lever or 
handle, this being effected by two bevel gears. 

McLain has devised a track cleaner which is a com- 
bined plow and scraper for street railways. On 
an arm depending from the under side of the car floor 
are pivoted independently two plow beams, to the 
outer ends of which the blades are fastened by 
bolts, which extend beyond the blades so that rubber 
blocks can be interposed between the ends of the 
bolts and the rear faces of the blades. The plow 
and beams are raised independently by flexible con- 
nections running over the pulleys fastened to the 
boot leg, to a point above the platform. When the 
blades meet an obstruction they twist against rub- 
ber blocks so that a constantly increasing force is 
applied to the obstruction, finally depositing the 
latter to one side of the track, the blades yielding to 
such extent as to avoid damage. 

An American inventor has brought out a system of 
gearing for use of rack railways, using a rack consist- 
ing of a steel wire twisted into a spiral, the wheel 
having in place of teeth another steel wire spiral at- 
tached to its rim and gearing into that on the rack. 

The Abt rack railway, which has recently come into 
prominence, consists in the main of a line with or- 



80 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

dinary adhesion rails, with an axial rack, consisting of 
several toothed bars of rolled soft steel, so placed 
alongside each other that the teeth overlap. The 
locomotive has two independent motive mechanisms 
one of which is the ordinary adhesion type, and works 
continuously, and the other operates only where the 
racks exist. The toothed wheels consist of as many 
toothed disks as there are racks, and are carried by 
axles so spaced that they shall come into gear alter- 
nately, and make the meshing smooth. There is a very 
powerful compressed air-brake, consisting in a reversal 
of motion, after substituting for the entrance of steam 
a flow of external air, which is cooled during the 
compression by an injection of water. 

Messrs. Max E. Schmidt and J. L. Silsbee propose 
a multiple despatch railway, and read a paper about 
it before the Western Association of Engineers at 
Chicago. The invention consists of three continuous 
platforms of which the middle one or car contains 
seats, and travels just twice as fast as the outer ones ; 
this being accomplished by attaching the cars to 
movable, flexible tracks resting upon the peripheries 
of wheels mounted upon suitable axles, so that as the 
wheels and axles run upon fixed tracks at a certain 
ratio of speed of the axles, the movable rails and cars 
attached "thereto will move at double the ratio of 
speed of the axles. It is claimed that a person can 
step on a platform that is approximately level with 
the ground and moves at about the rate of a walk, or 
about four miles an hour. 

The motive power will be carried by a cable or by 
electricity. Present conditions favor electricity. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 81 

It is claimed that with two seats abreast, such a 
series of platforms will carry 21,120 passengers per 
hour on the second platform, at six miles per hour, 
31,680 on the third at nine miles per hour, and so on 
up to 63,360 passengers per hour on the sixth, moving 
eighteen miles per hour. Seating four abreast this 
figure just doubles. 



RAILWAY ROLLING STOCK. 

The railway car of 1831, of which some few speci- 
mens are yet in service or within reach of the eyes of 
the curious, excite a smile on the part of the railway 
traveler of to-day, from their small size, light 
weight, and meager accommodations. The rolling 
palaces of 1892 are noted for their size, their strength, 
their comfort and convenience, and the many ap- 
pliances tending to make them safer in case of ac- 
cidents. Improvements in this line have been many 
and various, and the sum total argues well for the 
satisfaction with which the traveler of the last dec- 
ade of the nineteenth century will pursue his way 
almost unconscious of the motion which bears him to 
the uttermost parts of the earth as though upon the 
win^s of a bird. 

In a new vestibule for railway trains the doors 
slide into the car, leaving the platform unobstructed. 
This is done by making a recess in the closet parti- 
tion or in a special partition inclosing a seat. The 
door is hung on rollers, and when it is desired to 
close the vestibule, is run out against a stanchion on 
the buffer beam and held by a spring. 



82 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

On one of the English railways there has been in- 
troduced a device to render it possible for any pas- 
senger to partly apply the automatic vacuum brake. 
The effect of this is also to throw out a disk by which 
trainmen can know on which car the brake is ap- 
plied. The engineer is supposed to know what has 
been done and to stop the train ; but by the use of 
the large ejector he can exhaust sufficient air to re- 
lease the brake and postpone the stop, if any emer- 
gency should seem to demand such action. 

Ventilated freight cars for fruit have been tried 
with great success during the past summer, the 
buyers and their freight arriving in better condition 
than those shipped over the same route at the same 
time in the ordinary car, and in many cases bringing 
an extra price sufficient to pay for the freight. 

A system of storing heat for street railways con- 
sists of an earthern tube inclosed in an iron pipe to 
which steam is supplied, sufficient heat being stored 
to keep the car comfortable for several hours. 

The cushion car wheel is so called because there is 
a rubber cushion between the tire and the wheel 
center. The centers are either spokes or plates, of 
cast iron or steel. The tires are fastened by through 
bolts which are counterbored in the flange on the 
outside of the tire, the nut being recessed into the 
rim on the inside. There is a flange on the inside of 
the rim against which the tire bears. A steel band 
■£% inch thick is put on outside the rubber ; the tire 
is then forced on over the steel band and bolted or 
riveted in place. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 83 

In a new system of car ventilation the fresh air is 
admitted through a double screen at each end of the 
car, at the sides, then driven in by the motion of the 
car and thence down to the steam pipes which are in- 
closed, openings in the registers being in the sides of 
the inclosure. It is suggested that the pipes be filled 
with ice water in summer. In the clearstory are self- 
reversing exhaust ventilators on the outside of the 
car, on the inside are registers to regulate the tem- 
perature in cold weather. 

A surface cattle guard has been improved so that 
it will not be materially damaged by loose brake 
beams, etc. There are strips of metal bearing 
saw-teeth upon their upper edges and lying parallel 
with the rails, set a few inches apart ; at the sides 
there are inclined fences which may be of barbed wire 
or of plain slats, the barbed wire being intended to 
prevent the intrusion of the razor-back hog of the 
South. The guard when laid is suspended for the 
nine feet of its length and does not rest on the inter- 
mediate ties. Of course it does away with the risk 
of wrecking rear cars when the truck falls off a car 
into the ordinary deep guard. 

A new railway car has no end platform, but has 
near the center of the car a vestibule or platform w r hich 
is open only on one side and connects with the two 
compartments by doorways. 

A new electric street car, weighing 28,000 pounds, 
is the joint invention of E. C. Sessions and C. L. 
Pullman. It is a " double-decker " concern, operated 



84 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

by the trolley electric system. In general appearance 
it resembles the double-decked vehicles in common 
use in London and Paris. It is 32 feet long, seven feet 
four inches wide, and 14 feet 9| inches high. The 
car seats forty passengers on each deck. The car 
body is so arranged that passengers may enter at the 
center of either side, where spiral stairs lead to the 
upper deck. Four stairways, combined into two at 
the bottom, separate toward the top, leading to either 
end of the car. The entrances at the center occupy 
no more space than the end platforms on ordinary 
street cars. The car is equipped with an electric 
chandelier and a double oil lamp in each compartment. 
Electric heaters are also set in the car. Two West- 
inghouse motors of 25 horse power furnish the power. 
The car rests on two trucks of special design, arranged 
with double-brake attachments and a friction brake. 
The efficiency of the brakes was demonstrated by the 
stoppage of the car within its own length while 
traveling twelve miles an hour. 

The car requires the service of three employees, and 
cost $3,500. 

An automatic brakes-shoe wear adjuster is for tak- 
ing up the slack of brake gear on railway cars as fast 
as it takes place through the wear on brake shoes. 
It is applicable to any brake gear now in use. 

A car journal oiler, which has been tried on the 
Norfolk and Western Railway, consists of three pieces 
of felt, held together by a brass band, with a small 
sheet clip to prevent the felt from falling down. The 
pieces of felt are pressed against the journal by 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 85 

springs at the end ; and the whole device may be in- 
serted in the standard oil-box without alteration of 
the latter. By this, only pure lubricating substance 
can reach the journal. The pressure of the journal 
on the center wick which wipes it keeps the side wicks, 
which are the lowest, from becoming gummed. 

A pressed steel hand-car wheel is now being intro- 
duced. Its weight is but 35 pounds as against 55 to 
90 for the ordinary cast iron wheels. It is composed 
of a single plate, pressed over to form the tread and 
flange and turned in at the latter ; the hub being of 
drop steel riveted to the plate. After pressing, the 
material between the corrugations of the plate is cut 
away to decrease the weight, and the wheel then has 
the appearance of a spoke wheel. 

A pressed steel truck particularly intended for 
freight cars is without equalizers, but has the springs 
over the axle boxes. The side frames are of steel 
plate T 5 g- inch thick, pressed into a large strong 
gusset which kee^ps the truck square, and gives it 
lateral stiffness. The transoms are of pressed steel. 

A new car seal for freight car fastenings has a 
numbering device by which there may be kept an 
account, in connection with the ordinary seal required, 
of the number of times that the car has been opened. 
A lock on the same principle is used by the Post 
Office Department in sealing registered letter pack- 
ages. 

A weed-cutting car has been introduced in the 
West. It consists of a heavy hand car, on the side of 



86 RECORD OP SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

which opposite the brake is a six-foot horizontal 
eutter-bar the sickle of which is driven from the axle, 
and which can be folded up when passing bridges or 
other obstructions. It will cut as low as the ties will 
permit, and to a point eight feet from the rails. It 
can work on the angle of a hill or on the side of a 
cutting. The car can be run so as to cut weeds at 
four to five miles per hour, by four to six men using 
the ordinary pumping brake. 

In a new design for air brake hose, the movable 
hose pieces are formed by circular overlapping disks 
of thin flexible metal, soldered on the outer and inner 
circumference, and by intersecting conical disks 
every one of which has flanges alternating. 

In a new train pipe valve the steam supply for each 
car is controlled by one movement from the interior 
of each car, thus doing away with the necessity of 
cocks under the platforms and simplifying the fric- 
tion of any system of equipment for steam heating 
from the locomotive. 

A new commingler for heating the hot water in 
railway cars by steam from the locomotive consists 
of a chamber filled with pebbles, in the center of 
which the steam is admitted through a rose or other 
fine perforations, and are in connection with the 
train pipes. The heating apparatus is controlled by 
only one valve ; no thermostatic apparatus being used. 
Thirteen minutes is all the time required to get up 
complete circulation. With this system the drain cock 
can be opened and all pipes emptied before the car 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 87 

is laid up, the car then standing cold without any 
danger of freezing. The pipes fill up by water of 
condensation from the steam. 

Sweden is beginning to like the American system of 
swiveling trucks on railway cars ; but the Swedes use 
more iron in their manufacture than is the custom 
in America. 

American cars have been introduced on the South- 
eastern Railway route to Dover, England ; on nearly 
all of the leading English lines the best trains have 
Pullman sleeping or drawing-room cars, and in some 
cases dining room cars. 

Hydraulic buffers for railway use were the subject 
of an interesting paper before the Verein Deutscher 
Maschinen Ingenieure. 



PROPOSED RAILWAYS. 

While the number of proposed railways is much 
less than has often been the case at the opening of a 
new year, and while perhaps also the number of miles 
proposed and building is less also, the year 1892 
is already noted for the magnitude and boldness 
of the railway projects with which it opens. No 
longer satisfied with joining neighboring or even 
distant cities, in the same or in adjacent states, the 
railway projector turns his attention to making a steel 
bond between the metropolises of countries at the 
opposite extremities of whole continents ; and no 
longer content with opening out fertile lands to settle- 



88 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

ment, he is plunging into desert and wilderness in 
the expectation and hope of bringing to civilized 
markets the products of savage lands. 

THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILROAD. 

The Russian Government is pushing forward with 
all possible speed the work on the Siberian railroad. 
The road will be twice as long as any of the Ameri- 
can transcontinental lines. The Government has 
ceased to cany on other public works and railways. 
These enterprises must for some time be conducted 
by private companies without state aid. 

The Government has resolved to open the road to 
traffic in 1895. Many engineers, however, are doubt- 
ful that this can be done, and some say that ten 
or twelve years will elapse before the road is in opera- 
tion. It is probable, also, that the total failure of the 
crops in large districts of Russia, and the necessity 
for Government aid, may interfere with the progress 
of the railroad enterprise. 

The estimated length is 4810 miles ; with the spurs, 
over 5000. 

The whole of the route has been mapped out, but 
only one-half properly surveyed. The other half has 
been partially examined, and a fresh party of engineers 
was sent from St. Petersburg to carry on the work. 
The surveyed portions are not continuous, but embrace 
long stretches of the road on different parts of the 
route. About 2500 miles of the road have been fully 
surveyed. The longest completed stretch of the 
surveys is on the central portion of the route, where, 
across the vast plains of Siberia, few engineering 
difficulties are encountered. About 1200 miles of 
this part of the route have been surveyed, and nearly 



RECORD OP SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 89 

700 miles of the route directly east of Lake Baikal 
have been completely laid out. About 200 miles, also, 
of the extreme eastern end of the route have been 
surveyed. The extreme western end, between the 
eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains and the Obi 
River, is still unsurveyed, and the total length of the 
line which has not yet been staked out is about 2400 
miles. The cost is estimated at $175,000,000. 

The Government intends to transform the Port of 
Vladivostock, which is the eastern terminus of the 
line, into a first-class fortress, and to provide it with 
a harbor for the use of the Russian Pacific fleet. It 
intends to make it a second Sebastopol. From this 
port fast cruisers will issue to harass the ships and 
commerce of any nation with which Russia may be 
at war. The fortifications are now rapidly building, 
and, when completed, the port will be practically 
impregnable. The Government has supplied the 
authorities of the town with ice breakers, and so the 
port will be open all the year around. 

THE TRANSASTDINE RAILWAY. 

This presents many difficulties which principally 
relate to tunneling and to overcoming great differences 
of level. The new railway joins two existing rail- 
ways, and has a length of 149 miles, of which 109 are 
on Argentine ground. The terminal points, Mendorp 
and Santa Rosa, are respectively 2376 and 2704 feet 
above sea level, but between them the line rises to 
10,460. The tunnels are at the highest points and 
take up 15 kilometers (0.32 miles). One of them is a 
spiral, 2061 yards long. The summit tunnel is 5665 
meters or 5540 yards long. The spiral tunnel is at 
Portillo, and has a radius of 200 meters, equal to 



90 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

about 10 chains. Eight of the tunnels are in sidelong 
ground permitting openings being made. The 
maximum grade is eight per cent, and extends for 15 
kilometers (9.32 miles). The tunnels are for single 
line only. The air for the drills in tunneling has 
been conveyed by electric cables. 

THE CENTRAL AFRICAN RAILWAY. 

The proposed Central African Railway is to have 
its western terminus at Lagos, on the Slave Coast, and 
its eastern at Berbereh near the entrance to the Red 
Sea. Its length is estimated at 3000 miles and its 
cost at £15,500,000. This is to run through the 
southern part of the Egyptian Soudan. 

The through route from London to Bombay via 
the Central African Railway would be from London 
by sea to Lagos, 5000 miles, 16 days ; by rail 
to Berbereh, 3000 miles, 5 days ; by sea to Bombay, 
1700 miles, 6 days ; total distance 9700 miles, time 
27 days. The distance via the Mediterranean and 
the Suez Canal is 6500 miles ; the time, 23 days. 

The French contemplate a railway from Algiers 
across the Sahara to the neighborhood of Lake 
Tchad, 1900 miles ; the cost being estimated at 
£6,650,000, and the cost of working £170 per year 
per mile. 

The Germans have commenced the construction of 
a railway to run from Tanza Bay into the in- 
terior as far as Kilimandjaro, 223 miles ; to cost 
£500,000 ; and the yearly working expense £242 
per mile. 



BECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 9l 

INTERCONTINENTAL ROAD IN SOUTH AMERICA. 

The proposed intercontinental railway in South 
America should probably start south on the eastern 
side of the Isthmus of Panama, somewhere south of 
Aspinwall, going west of the Gulf of Darien into 
the Valley of the Atrato, up this valley to its head 
across the divide of the Cauca Valley and up this. 
From this valley to that of the Aqua Rico or Napo 
should be the most expensive to locate and build. 
Bogota can be reached by a line up the Valley of the 
Magdalena and via Honda ; to Quito by a line up 
the Coca, a branch of the Napo. Lima will be more 
difficult to reach. 

Erastus Wiman has a project for covering Staten 
Island with a network of electric railways, so that 
one can go from the edge into the middle of the 
island as easily as now he can get around it. 

new york's rapid transit railway. 

The Rapid Transit System proposed by the commis- 
sion for Xew York City is the idea of the commis- 
sion's chief engineer, W. E. Worthen. It provides 
for four underground tracks and a level road. The 
motive power is to be electricity or anything better 
that may be invented or devised before work on the 
road actually begins. The two outside tracks will be 
for local trains, and the inside tracks for express 
trains that shall be run at a speed of forty miles an 
hour. 

There will be two main lines, one on the East and 
one on the West side, extending from the Battery to 



92 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

the corporate limits. The plan also provides for a 
connecting cross-town line about Fourteenth Street. 
There will be in all thirty miles of road. 

The proposed tunnel is to be thoroughly ventilated 
by artificial means and lighted by electricity. Fans 
placed at regular intervals between stations and ven- 
tilating shafts will be kept constantly in motion by 
electric power, and they will maintain a strong cur- 
rent of air. The commissioners believe that the 
tunnel can be kept free of dust and smoke and foul 
air, and that a moderate temperature can be main- 
tained at all seasons. 

As an extra safeguard against accidents the block 
system will be used. Enough lights are to be placed 
in the tunnels to keep the tracks so well lighted that 
it will be possible to see from one station to another. 

The commission will recommend electricity as the 
best motive power for tunnels now in use, but the 
plans will admit of the adoption of any motive power 
that may be deemed to be better. 

Coal-burning engines will be out of the question 
on account of the smoke. It is believed that a speed 
of forty miles an hour for the express trains can be 
maintained with electric power, and that is the 
highest speed contemplated by the plans and report 
of the commission. 

The average width of the tunnel will be 44 feet 
and the height 11 feet 6 inches. 

The roof of the tunnel will be nine feet below the 
surface of the streets, and the pipes, sewers, and sub- 
ways will not be disturbed by the work of construc- 
tion. In building the tunnels, the commissioners 
say it will not be necessary to disturb the surface of 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 93 

the street, except where stations and air shafts are 
located. 

The entrances to the stations will generally be 
located on private property, so that street traffic will 
not be interrupted. 

The tunnel will be wider than some of the streets 
under which it will be constructed. In such cases 
the foundation walls of the buildings on both sides 
will be strengthened and made the side walls of the 
tunnel. 

The roof of the tunnel will be supported by iron 
columns placed on concrete and stone foundations. 
The tunnel will be made watertight. 

It will be necessary to increase the width of the 
tunnel at the double stations where both local and 
express trains will stop. At these stations the outer 
or local tracks will diverge to the right and left and 
the stations will be placed between the local and ex- 
press train tracks. The express trains cannot be 
reached from the local stations. 

The commission will furnish estimates of the cost 
of construction of the entire system. The com- 
missioners declare that the cost will be so low 
that private capital will be invested in the enter- 
prise. 

Below the City Hall the tunnel will be only thirty- 
four feet wide, and will contain but three tracks. 

There will be four tracks under Broadway to 
Fourteenth Street. There the two lines diverge, the 
East side going up Fourth and Madison Avenues, and 
the West side up Broadway and the Boulevard. 

The Harlem River will be crossed by drawbridges 
fifty-seven feet high. 



94 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

Above the Harlem River the roads will be partly 
underground and partly a viaduct. 

The plan meets with very general dissatisfaction 
and opposition, and there is proposed instead, by 
engineers and others not of the commission, a four- 
track elevated railway which through the greater part 
of its length shall follow the course of the New York 
Central tunnel and tracks, above which it will be 
constructed. 

THE MATTERHORN RAILWAY. 

A very bold engineering project is to climb the 
peak of the Matterhorn by an extension of the Visp 
Zermatt railway 2 J miles up the valley to Gorge, and 
from this to make two high mountain railroads, one to 
Gornengrat and the other to the peak of the Matter- 
horn. The first branch is to be in two sections, an 
electric cable road and an electric rack road ; the 
first 4260 feet long with a rise of 2100 ; the second 
13,940 feet long, 2660 feet rise. The gauges of 
both sections will be 2.52 feet. The superstructure 
will be the Abt rack and the motive power an electric 
locomotive of special and novel design. The Matter- 
horn branch is to be in three sections, an electric 
cable road, an electric rack road, and an electric wire 
rope road. There is to be an Abt rack 2950 feet 
long with a 1.28 per cent, grade connecting the adhe- 
sion road with the Matterhorn road proper ; the first 
section proper to be an electric cable 3740 feet hori- 
zontal, 1760 feet rise ; the second an electric rack 
14,900 feet horizontal, 2700 feet rise ; the third 5830 
feet horizontal, 4400 feet rise, with an average grade of 
75.5 feet. The gauge of all these is to be 2.62 feet 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 95 

In the latter section the construction is more like a 
shaft than a tunnel. The road will emerge to the 
light of day about 60 feet below the almost vertical 
peak of the Matterhorn. 

The proposed Three Americas railway, from New 
York to Buenos Ayres, is to be 9000 miles long. Of 
this distance more than half is already covered by 
railways, and 2000 miles more are being surveyed 
and constructed ; leaving about 2300 miles to be pro- 
vided for. The cost is estimated at $300,000,000. 

Siam is to have a railway across the Malay Penin- 
sula, from Singore to Saibwere, then to the tin dis- 
trict of Kulen. 

There is to be a 265 kilometer railway between 
Bankok and Korat, Siam. 

An automatic railway is proposed for Dundee har- 
bor, to carry bales from the vessels to the sheds at 
the rate of 1200 per hour, by an ordinary tramway of 
14-inch gauge, having an endless wire rope to haul 
the cars. 

A railway is proposed from Vancouver to Alaska, 
following a route explored by the Western Union 
Telegraph Company when it sought to connect 
America and Asia before laying the telegraph cable. 
The route passes through a fertile Galley containing 
12,000 square miles capable of producing grain, while 
the mountains are rich in gold and silver. 

The British East Africa Company has determined 



96 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

to survey the district between the east coast of Africa 
and Victoria Nyanza. 

A rack railway seven miles long is under construction 
on the Usni Mountain, Japan, to connect the termini 
of the state railway at Yokohama and Karnisawa. 
There are along the line twenty-one tunnels, 12,200 
feet in length in all, and the steepest grade is one to 
fifteen. 

A railway is to be built to supplement the Suez 
Canal by carrying the stores of the Canal Company 
itself, thus displacing the boats and bridges at present 
employed in that service ; this being particularly 
needed now while the canal is being widened some 
26 feet. 

A portable railway has been designed for Africa 
to transport to Lake Victoria the steamer of the 
German agent, Wissmann. Man power will be used 
to propel it, about 1000 men being used. It will 
take five to six months to carry the steamer from 
the coast to the lake. The track length is 820 feet, 
the length of the train being 328 feet. The track 
sections consist each of two rails having a cross tie at 
one end. At the other end each rail has a hook by 
which it is fastened to the section just laid. Each 
section weighs 62 pounds. 



FAST RAILWAY RUNS. 

In 1891 there have been many records broken, at 
sea and on land, not only for short distances but for 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 97 

long transits. In this particular the iron horse has 
covered himself with glory no less than has the swift 
steam bird of the ocean. The mere record of the suc- 
cessful and now wonderful performances of 1891 
may seem to the critic of 1901 to be very mediocre ; 
but to us they represent progress, and deserve at our 
hands the most intelligent and grateful appreciation. 

The distance between San Francisco and New 
York has been covered in four days 12 hours and 38 
minutes, over the Southern Pacific, Union Pacific 
and Michigan Southern, Lake Shore and New York 
Central railways. The number of miles run was 
3307 and the average speed 30| miles per hour ; 
weight of train and number of stops not stated. 

The Michigan Central Railway ran a train from 
Chicago to Buffalo, November 1st, in 12 hours 23 
minutes, making the average run for 536.5 miles 42.8 
miles per hour, including all stops, and a ferriage at 
Detroit of 29 minutes. The regular time for the 
same trip is 14 hours 10 to 40 minutes. 

A train of three cars on the Chicago and North- 
western road ran, in May, from Council Bluffs to 
Chicago in nine hours, exclusive of stops, or 53.92 
miles per hour. 

On the occasion of the opening of a new hotel in 
Washington the Pennsylvania Railroad ran a train 
from Jersey City to Washington, 227 miles, in four 
hours 11 minutes, including five minutes lost in chang- 
ing engines at Gray's Ferry, and six minutes stoppage 



08 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

for repairs to a brake. The cars weighed 125 tons ; 
the locomotive and tender 76 1-. This rate is 54.4 miles 
per hour. 

A remarkably fast run was made from St. Joseph, 
Mo., to Council Bluffs, la., over the Kansas City, St. 
Joseph and Council Bluffs, la., Railroad. A special 
was made up to test the practicability of running a 
new train to connect from the South with the Union 
Pacific overland flyer at Council Bluffs; and the train 
made 111 miles in 118 minutes, being 56.4 miles 
per hour, with three stops. This will afford material 
for reflection to the European railroad men who say 
that American trains can make fast runs only on the 
" good tracks " near the Eastern seaboard, but that on 
the Western roads forty miles an hour is exceptional 
traveling. 

September 14, there was a run made from New York 
to East Buffalo, 436J miles, in 439J minutes, includ- 
ing H i\ minutes delay for a hot bearing. The run was 
as follows: 

Time. Speed. 

New York 7.30 a. m. 



59.52 

miles 

per 

hour. 



143 ^ jss. S a a .m:M 

Syracuse {&&5P55 \« 

466J East Buffalo 3.50 p. m. ■ 58J 

The train consisted of an engine weighing 60 tons 
and a 40-ton tender, a drawing-room car 40 tons, 
a buffet car 33 tons, and a private car 38 tons, or 
210 tons in all. The engines had cylinders 19"x 24" ; 



t RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 99 

the first having Gj-foot coupled drivers and the other 
5 j. The first engine had 1821.5 square feet of heat- 
ing surface and 273 square feet of grate. All the 
tenders took up water during transit, and carried 6 j- 
tons of coal. 

On the Canadian Pacific a train ran from Vancouver 
to Montreal in 92|- hours, including three hours deten- 
tion from a landslide. From Smith's Falls to Mon- 
treal, 128.3 miles, the running time was two hours 
five minutes, or 61.6 miles per hour. 

December 2, a fast run was made with a heavy 
train on the P. C. C. & St. L. Railway. The train 
weighed 893,500 pounds, and the maximum speed was 
70 miles per hour, while the average speed between 
Xenia and Columbus, deducting time for stops, was 
50 miles an hour, and the average speed including 
stops 43 miles per hour. The leading engine of the 
two which hauled the train weighed 70,500 pounds 
and its tender 50,500; the second engine weighed 
96,000 pounds and its tender 50,500. 

A special train on the Philadelphia and Reading 
Railway was run August 27, making 12 miles in 
eight minutes ±\ seconds, or 82.7 miles per hour. 
The miles from the sixth to the tenth inclusive 
were run at 87 miles per hour. The fastest 
mile was made on a level just following a 
descending grade of 37 feet per mile. The engine 
weighed 98,000 pounds, tender 68,300 ; three cars 
making up the weight of the train to 337,250 pounds. 
The engine was number 206, class D 33, with a 



100 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. # 

Wootten fire box, burning hard coal; cylinders 18£ by 
22 inches ; four 68-inch driving wheels. 

A French fast train, built in th£ shops of the 
Northern Railway, with 16 carriages, weighing in all 
667,800 pounds, ran from Paris to Calais, 184.56 miles, 
in three hours and 53 minutes, making two stops, 
one of five and the other of two minutes. The ave- 
rage speed, making no allowance for stops, was 47.53 
miles per hour. From Paris to Amiens the speed was 
51.58 miles, going up the Survilliers grade of 0.5 per 
cent., 11.17 miles long, at the rate of 46.6 miles. 
Going down the same grade the speed was 71.46 miles 
per hour. 

Webb's new compound locomotive, the " Greater 
Britain," has brought up 25 of the London and North- 
western heavy six-wheel coaches from Rugby to 
Euston in one hour and 51 minutes. 

TRAIN SPEED MEASURER. 

Mr. Sabouret, engineer to the Compagnie des Che- 
mins de Fer d'Orleans, has devised an apparatus for 
measuring train speed, consisting of a tuning fork 
having a point which inscribes a curve on the smoked 
surface of a cylinder turned by suitable mechanism. 
This is fixed at any part of the line, and as the train 
passes it sets the instrument in motion, stopping it 
when it has passed a given distance. The error is 
less than two per cent., even at a speed of 60 miles 
per hour. 

HEAVY TRAIN HAULAGE. 

A train weighing 3019 tons, exclusive of the engine 



* &ECOKD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 101 

and cab, was hauled 30 miles on the Philadelphia and 
Reading Railway in 11 hours. The engine had 22 by 
28-inch cylinders, and eight 50-inch driving wheels. 
The weight on the drivers was 138,340 pounds. The 
paying weight was more than two-thirds of the 
total weight hauled. 

The Pennsylvania Railroad broke the record for 
fast travel between New York and Washington, by 
taking a special train from Jersey City to Washing- 
ton, 227 miles, in four hours 11 minutes. The train 
had three Pullman cars weighing 285,420 pounds, and 
with the engine weighed about 242 tons. From Jersey 
City to Bristol, 66 miles, the time was 62^ minutes, 
the 26 miles between East Brunswick and Trenton be- 
ing made in 23 minutes. It is said that the giving out 
of a brake at Baltimore delayed the train six minutes. 



MISCELLANEOUS RAILWAY ITEMS. 

The railway of to-day is far reaching, many-handed 
and many-headed, and there are connected with its 
management and operation thousands of items that 
cannot well receive proper classification in a resume 
such as this. In addition to the many interesting 
paragraphs which are presented under the heads of 
Locomotives, Permanent Way, Rolling Stock, Pro- 
posed Railways, etc., there are some no less interest- 
ing when taken in connection with others there classi- 
fied, or even alone ; and these are here recorded for 
the reader interested in railway matters in general. 

A new device for raising water to railway tanks 



102 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

consists of a bucket with a capacity of 2000 gallons, 
which is raised from the well or reservoir by the loco- 
motive, and which automatically empties itself into the 
water tank ; the idea being to hook on to any part of 
the moving train with a wire rope running through 
suitably-arranged sheaves. As the engine moves 
away the bucket is raised to the desired elevation. 
When the bucket is emptied, the rope is cast loose 
from the train and the bucket allowed to descend, at 
a rate controlled by a governor. 

A flexible steam joint to be used on steam -heated 
trains between locomotive and tender is without 
packing. On the end of a pipe connected to a valve 
leading from the boiler is a hollow cast iron sphere, 
ground true on the outside to make a tight joint in 
a screwed ring which is ground true on the inside. 
The lower half of the joint is also of cast iron and is 
turned out to receive the hollow sphere, but is not in- 
tended to make a joint therein. When the ring is 
screwed down, the sphere is so loose in the cavity that 
water of condensation in the pipe can run out; but as 
soon as the pressure is brought on, the sphere is forced 
to its seat and a tight joint made. This self -draining 
feature specially adapts such a joint for use with rock 
drills, and in saw mills in cold weather. 

A new German coupler between locomotive and ten- 
der is hinged on the outside in two horizontal trun- 
nions and on the locomotive on one horizontal trun- 
nion. On the outside the coupling rests in two bear- 
ings which are screwed upon the chafing-plate under 
the platform ; on the engine it rests in a sliding 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 103 

piece which is attached above and below to the foot 
plate and turns freely on the coupler bolt. The new 
coupler makes it possible to shorten the engine frame 
and to replace the cast iron coupling by wrought 
iron, thus lessening the weight. 

THE TRAIN STAFF SYSTEM. 

The "train staff" system of running single-track 
roads is used on the Shore Line Division of the N. Y., 
K". H. & H. R. R. At each end of the single-track 
section, in the switchman's house, there is a box con- 
taining tickets, red for one end of the section and 
white for the other. The box has a lock which can 
be opened only by a key in the end of a staff, upon 
which is a plate bearing the words "Mantic and New 
London." The key may be slid out for use or drawn 
in for protection. There is only one staff for the 
section. The engineer of the train approaching the 
section (if not followed by any other train), upon 
entering the red ticket end of the section, takes from 
the switchman the train staff, and retains it until he 
reaches the end of the section, when he delivers it up 
to the switchman at the opposite or white ticket end. 
So long as the staff is retained by the switchman, no 
train can follow the outgoing train, as the switchman 
who gives up the train staff has no way of opening 
the box, and cannot authorize a train to follow the 
first one, either by giving the engineer a ticket or by 
handing him the staff. If other trains are to follow 
the first one entering the single-track section from 
the same direction, the switchman gives the engineer 
of the first train a red train staff ticket from the box 
in the switchhouse ; at the same time he shows the 



104 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

engineer the train staffs thus indicating his authority 
to dispatch the train and to send the second train 
upon its arrival. If but two trains are to pass over 
the section in the same direction, the switchman gives 
the engineer of the second train the train staff, and it 
is carried to the opposite end of the section and there 
delivered to the switchman, as in the first case. A 
red ticket will allow a train to pass in only one 
direction, a white one being needed for the opposite 
direction. Two trains moving in opposite directions 
cannot occupy the same section at the same time 
where this system is rigidly carried out ; and the 
engineers and the switchmen are directly responsible 
for the safe passage of the trains. This system has 
been used in Europe on short lines, bridges, etc., and 
has been extensively adopted in Australia. 

Messrs. Martin & Theodor Perls, of 62 Basinghall 
St., London, have brought out a system of railway 
signalling by which, if two engines come on the same 
section of line, bells are automatically set ringing in 
each one by an electric current. This is accomplished 
by lengths of conductor alongside of each rail, each 
separate length being entirely disconnected from the 
preceding and the following one on the same side, al- 
though each length on the left side is connected to 
the one just in advance of it on the right side. The 
lengths on the two sides break joint. Centrally be- 
tween the rails is an additional conductor, which is 
continuous. Each engine has a battery and an elec- 
tric bell. Two engines on the line at the same time 
make electric connection with each other's bells. 

In a recent idea for a pneumatic signal there is a 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 105 

disk 12 inches in diameter made of two pieces of plate 
glass, one- eighth inch apart, in a copper band. In the 
bottom of this band is an opening to which is soldered 
a pipe connecting with a reservoir above the signal. 
At the top of the band there protrudes, from between 
the glass plates, a pipe to which is affixed an air tube 
which runs to the office from which the signal is to be 
operated. A red liquid is poured in the reservoir 
and flows down through the pipe and up between the 
glass plates, filling the space between them and mak- 
ing the disk in its normal condition red. This may 
be changed to white by forcing air between the 
plates. It is said to work well 100 feet from the op- 
erator, with but slight effort on his part. 

In an electro-mechanical controller for operating a 
signal from an adjacent tower by the usual lever and 
connections, and also from one too far off for mechan- 
ical connections, there is the well-known balance 
lever weighted so as to put the signal to danger in 
case of rupture of the connections. This lever is cen- 
tered on a link which is fastened to a horizontal dia- 
phragm held in position by atmospheric pressure 
under it ; but by opening the electric circuit an elec- 
tro-magnet releases a spring, raises a valve stem about 
one-sixteenth inch, letting air into the diaphragm 
chamber and allowing the diaphragm to drop and set 
the signal to danger. 

A new train order system works entirely by electric- 
ity ; its hands can be placed where it is most conven- 
ient, and not necessarily in front of the office ; and 
it has provision against letting a train pass while 
there are orders for it, through the operator's forget- 



106 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

fulness. It permits the train to be held beyond the 
station, so that a train can be held for orders, and at 
the same time permits it to stop where passengers or 
freight can be discharged and water taken on. 

The mid-European or fifteenth meridian time has 
been adopted on most of the railways in Germany and 
Austria. 

The zone system of railway management is to be 
introduced on the Cork, Black Rock and Passage 
Railway Company, the result being that instead of 
one hundred and fifty different sorts of tickets being 
issued at Cork there w r ill be only eight ; while the new 
scale of fares will be lower all around by 30 per cent. 

The Pennsylvania Railroad has completed at Jersey 
City a new passenger depot, having a truss roof 
with a clear area of 256 by 600 feet, carried by 22 iron 
trusses, arranged in pairs, 14| feet between members 
of pairs, and 43^ feet between pairs. The height of 
trusses is 90 feet from the ground level ; and there is a 
clearstory 26 feet high. The trusses were built upon 
scaffolding 234 feet wide, 60 feet deep and 84 feet high, 
being deep enough to include three trusses. The 
great train-room of the Grand Central Depot in New 
York is only 652 feet long and 199-*- feet w^ide. 

The entire Jersey City train shed is 653^- feet long, 
256 wide, 112 high, and weighs 4,550,000 pounds. 



CANALS. 



It may be set down as a fact that the cutting of 
great ways, joining vast bodies of navigable w r ater, 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 107 

and shortening by from days to months the water 
transit from one great port to another, is one of the 
infallible measures of progressive spirit in a people. 

At present there are several under way, including 
the American project of connecting the Atlantic and 
Pacific Oceans across the Isthmus of Darien; and some 
of these find here a chronicle, more or less brief. 

THE NORTH GERMAN CANAL. 

The cutting of the ship canal through the province 
of Schleswig-Holstein to connect the North Sea with 
the Baltic is progressing rapidly, and it is believed 
that it can be completed by April, 1893, or a little 
more than six years from the day on which the first 
spadeful of soil was turned in the presence of Emperor 
William I. at Holtenau, near Kiel. Since the sixteenth 
century sixteen plans have been urged for connecting 
the two seas, and the last two form the basis of the 
project now under way. 

It starts at Holtenau on the north side of Kiel Bay, 
and joins the Elbe near Brunsbuttel 15 miles above 
its mouth. From Kiel Bay to Rendsburg it follows 
the Schleswig and Holstein canal, which was made 
100 years ago ; then follows the Eider to Willenber- 
gen. It is 61 miles long, 200 feet wide at the surface 
and 85 feet at the bottom ; the depth being 28 feet. 
No locks are required ; but there are flood gates at 
the Eider Junction and at its termination. 

As the mean water-level of the North Sea is con- 
siderably higher than that of the Baltic, both open- 
ings are to have huge locks. Near Rendsburg is to 
be another lock to connect the new canal with the old 
Eider canal. The medium water-level is to be about 



108 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

equal to that of Kiel harbor, and the locks at the out- 
let on the Baltic are to be open nearly always, or ex- 
cept during the periods of considerable variation in 
the water-levels. At the lowest tide the navigable 
width is to be about 119 feet, so as to allow the largest 
Baltic steamships to pass each other. The movements 
of war vessels and the largest vessels of the merchant 
marine were considered in making the curves, because 
they cannot pass a curve with a short radius. Between 
two counter curves a straight line has been drawn 
for safe navigation. A speed of 5.3 knots is admis- 
sible. About 63 per cent, of the canal has straight 
lines. 

From Holtenau to Rendsburg the line runs through 
a very undulating country, and there it has the great- 
est number of curves. In front of the outlet into the 
River Elbe is to be a roadstead. In cutting through 
about nine miles of the watershed of the rivers Elbe 
and Eider an excavation of about 98 feet to 
the bottom of the canal is required. Between Rends- 
burg and the Baltic a ridge must be cut through, and 
just beyond Rendsburg the upper Eider lakes must be 
lowered for the canal to pass through. The flow of 
the canal is toward the Elbe, but at high tide in the 
Elbe it will discharge into the Baltic Sea. The banks 
are to have stone packing to diminish the force 
of waves. 

About 7000 workmen are employed in the construc- 
tion. They are in 38 camps, of 160 to 500 men each, 
each camp having its own executive office and sleeping 
barracks. The common laborers get about seventy 
cents a day, and the foremen and skilled laborers get 
from ninety-five cents to $1.15 a dav. The mechani- 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 109 

cal appliances are 27 dry dredgers, 24 floating dredgers, 
97 locomotives, about 62 miles of track, 2700 dirt carts, 
four elevators, 15 steamboats, 51 receptacles for dredg- 
ing implements, and 37 steam pumps. Along the line 
are several forges and two brick yards. The total 
cost is fixed at about $37,128,000. About one-third 
of that amount was paid by the Russian Government 
before the work was begun. The rest is to be paid, 
as required, by the German empire. The construction 
is under the management of the Imperial Canal Com- 
mission. 

The depth of water will be sufficient for the 
largest German vessels. The canal will be of great 
advantage to the timber and ice vessels trading be- 
tween St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Dantzic, Riga, 
and all the North-German ports in the Baltic and 
England, as the passage by the Kattegat and Skager 
Rack is very dangerous. The distance sailed between 
Baltic ports and the Thames will be 250 miles ; to Lynn 
or Boston (England), 220, to Hull 200, to Newcas- 
tle or Leith 100. 

The regulations for the working of the canal have 
been adapted to the traffic to be anticipated. The 
traffic between the Baltic and the North Sea, including 
vessels from a greater distance, embraced, on the aver- 
age, from 1871 to 1880, through the Sound, 35,246 
vessels ; through the Belts, 4000 vessels ; through the 
Eider Canal, 2258 vessels, or a total of 41,504 vessels. 
Of that traffic four-fifths, it is believed, may be 
counted on for the canal in the near future. About 
27 steam vessels and 30 tows, of three to four sailing 
vessels moving in one direction, can go through in a 
day. The time saved by a steamship running be- 



110 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

tween Kiel and Hamburg by way of the canal is esti- 
mated at 2| days. The time of passage through the 
canal, including stoppages and delays, is to be about 
13 hours. Germany's naval ports at Kiel, on the Bal- 
tic, and at Wilhelmshaven, on the North Sea, can be 
within easy access after the completion of the canal, 
whereas now a squadron is three days from port to 
port. 

Four railroads cross the line of the canal, but three 
of them are to be conducted over it by turn bridges 
and one by a suspension bridge near Grtlnthal. For 
two of the much frequented country roads turn bridges 
are to be built, and for the other sixteen ferries are to 
be provided, 

THE MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL. 

This canal will use over 1,250,000 cubic yards of 
concrete in addition to 175,000 cubic yards of brick 
work, and 220,000 cubic yards of masonry. It has 
about 30 fluid sluices which have an edge almost as 
sharp as a knife, resting upon a planed steel sill. 
They are of the rolling type, are fully balanced, and 
are raised by gearing. They w T ork so easily that the 
power exerted by a man raising them in free air, and 
with ten feet of differential head, was about the same, 
the head making on them a pressure of about 45 
gross tons. The canal is to have an electric launch 
service established by one of the best known English 
companies. 

The contractors for the Corinth ship canal have 
found trouble by reason of enough slope not having 
been given to the clay banks. As the cut is in many 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. Ill 

places 250 feet deep, it will be seen that the change 
in the slope will very greatly increase the amount 
of material to be removed and the cost of the 
canal. 

There will soon be a navigable depth of 20 feet 
from Duluth to Buffalo. 

PROPOSED CANALS. 

Another ship canal project is to join Lake Erie 
with the Ohio River from Conneaut to Rochester on 
the Ohio, so as to give a depth of 14 feet to Pittsburgh, 
for steamers of 1500 tons. This would cost $27,000,- 
000. It is figured that such a canal would reduce the 
cost of carrying ore to Pittsburgh from Lake Superior 
by $2 per ton. 

The project for connecting New York and Phila- 
delphia by a ship canal across the State of New Jer- 
sey, utilizing if possible some of the natural water 
courses of the latter State, and which project was 
advocated in 1873 by the editor of this Record, is 
again occupying a slight measure of public attention ; 
and it is to be hoped that, before the close of 1892, it 
will have gone at least so far as to have resulted in a 
suitable commission to make surveys and report to the 
legislatures of the three States most interested. Such 
a canal would in great part relieve Philadelphia of its 
present condition of being merely an inland city, and 
would greatly lessen the cost of freight on coal, iron, 
etc., to the seaboard. 

An appropriation has been made for a survey for a 



112 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

ship canal to connect Lakes Union and Washington, 
back of Seattle, Washington, five miles, including two 
miles through Lake Union. This is to give Seattle 
some of the advantages now possessed by Portland on 
the Columbia river. 

Chicago is at present engaged in considering the 
solution of the problem of securing such a w r ater way 
as shall dispose of the sewage for many years to come ; 
shall relieve the dwellers on the line of the canal from 
all nuisances arising from the sewage disposal ; and 
shall provide a navigable channel for deep-draft 
vessels. The most favored scheme, that of Mr. 
Cooley, embraces a canal commencing near the mouth 
of the Chicago River, passes through a cut in the low 
ridge forming the summit level, runs to Lake Joliet 
and through the valleys of the Desplaines and Illinois 
rivers to the Mississippi at Grafton (325 miles), where 
the low water level is 172.4 feet below the Chicago 
datum, and where the high water level is 20 feet 
above low water. 

The project provides that the depth of the canal 
shall be not less than 14 feet as far as Lake Joliet, 
thence to La Salle 14 feet at first with provision for 
increasing to 22 feet. This would take 10,000 cubic 
feet per second from Lake Michigan and pour it into 
the Mississippi ; this being about 4J per cent, of the 
total amount that goes over Niagara. 

A water way is proposed from Sheffield, England, 
to the sea, to be 5^ miles long and to extend from 
South Yorkshire, England, to the Aire and Calder 
navigation, the new channel joining the latter about 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 113 

seven miles from Goole, so that by the river Oude the 
manufactures of Sheffield, Rotherham, and other indus- 
trial centers in South Yorkshire, will pass to the sea 
in addition to these of Leeds, Wakefield, etc. 

A company of Russian capitalists has applied for a 
charter to dig a canal by which the river Amoo-Daria 
shall be joined with the Caspian Sea. The company 
desires to establish a steamship line on the new canal 
and along the Amoo-Daria. 

Mr. E. L. Corthell read a paper before the Canadian 
Society of Civil Engineers on the practicability of 
making an enlarged water way from the Northwest 
to the Atlantic seaboard and Europe ; the intention 
being to provide for vessels of 3000 tons of cargo and 
having 5000 net tons displacement, with 20 feet 
draft. The author places ship railways on an 
equality, as transportation methods, with canals ; con- 
sidering them in many respects superior, first, in that 
the cost of construction is generally about half that 
of the ship canal ; second, the cost of operation and 
maintenance is less ; third, the rate of speed is greater, 
and the detention en route is less by reason of the ab- 
sence of locks. 

The Ulefos-Strengen canal in Norway, instead of 
costing $275,000, will cost more than double that. 

The Panama Canal is practically a thing of the 
past ; the rains have caused land-slides to fill up the 
cuts. 

Wiebe has found by tests, on %\ miles of the Oder 
and Spree Canal, that the submerged chain system is 



114 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

unsatisfactory, and the endless rope system imprac- 
ticable, by reason of the rotation of the tow rope 
tending 'to twist the boat painter about it. Attaching 
the rope to the center of gravity of a heavy towing 
car, running behind and drawn by a light locomotive 
such as is commonly used in mines, gives good results ; 
boats being towed at from 10 to 12 feet per second. 
The tension in starting three heavy coal barges was 
1764 pounds, but rapidly decreased as the boats 
gathered way. 



TUNNELS. 



Each decade man becomes more and more aggres- 
sive and more impatient of any obstacle which lies be- 
tween him and the accomplishment of his desires for 
easy transit, for abundance of water supply, or for 
the obtention of mineral treasures from the bowels of 
the earth. The invention and introduction of high ex- 
plosives, and the increasing superiority of drilling 
machines for penetrating hard strata, as well as the 
facility now offered by the hydraulic shield, for pro- 
gress in even the softest materials, have given an im- 
petus to tunnel engineering which will doubtless 
prove as productive as it is surprising. 

THE SIMPLON TUNNEL. 

Another great railroad tunnel is to be dug through 
the Alps, and Geneva is greatly rejoiced because she 
thinks she will now get some of the travel which has 
long been attracted over the Gothard route to Zurich 
and the Reuss Valley. The tunneling of the Simplon 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 115 

has taken definite form and work has begun. The 
tunnel will connect the Jura-Sirnplon Railway Com- 
pany's line, which now terminates on the north at 
Brigue, with Dorao d'Osolla on the south, in Italy, 
at the existing terminus of the Italian-Mediterranean 
Company's line. It is estimated that the total cost of 
the tunnel and approaches will be $15,000,000. 

From Brigue to the center of the mountain there 
will be but a single boring, large enough to receive a 
double track. The tunnel will then be divided into 
two smaller ones, running parallel and each containing 
a single track. It is thought this plan will be most 
economical and better for ventilation. An exhaustion 
shaft is to be made at the highest part of the boring, 
where the tunnel divides and where the volume of 
smoke and gases will naturally be greatest. The 
junction of these two railway systems will bring 
southwest Germany into more direct communication 
with the important towns of northern Italy. 

ANOTHER THAMES TUNNEL. 

The London County Council has signed the con- 
tract for the Blackwall tunnel under the Thames. It 
will be 27 feet in outside diameter, commencing on the 
north side in the East India Dock Road, ending on 
the south side on Greenwich Marshes. On each side 
there will be an opening approach of 300 yards. The 
total length of the tunnel proper will be 4464 feet, of 
which 1212 will be under the river. The interior dia- 
meter will be 23 feet, which is 5^ feet more than that 
of the largest tunnel ever attempted of its class. 
There will be a roadway of 16 feet, for two lines of 
vehicles, and a footpath each side of three feet. 



116 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

The headway will be 17 feet 1| inches in the center. 
The space under the roadway will have a subway 
4 feet wide by 4^ feet high, for drainage, lighting, 
etc. For 3693 feet the tunnel will be of iron with a 
lining of white glazed bricks ; 761 feet of "cut and 
cover" will be of concrete and brick, and 1645 feet of 
open cut of the same material. The iron will be 2 
inches thick and the brick lining 15 inches. The 
bore will come within 6 feet of the river bed, and 
nothing will come between the shields and the 46 feet 
of water at high tide but 6 feet of gravel. Work 
will be begun at several points, three of the shafts for 
this purpose, 60 feet in diameter, being kept perman- 
ently as stairways for foot passengers and a fourth for 
ventilation. The contract has been let for £871,000 ; 
being about one-third the price per yard that was 
paid for the old Thames tunnel. 

A tunnel 5 miles long is being driven through 
the solid rock under Crow's Peak, 60 miles west of 
Denver. It is 8 by 18 feet in cross section, and will 
later be enlarged for railway purposes. It is all 
through rock. 

Mons. Pochet has devised a method of ventilating 
railway tunnels, by dividing the tunnel into two 
chambers by a horizontal partition 15 feet above the 
rails. In this there are two continuous lengthwise 
flues, converging toward the top and closed by upward 
opening balance valves. The upper smoke chamber 
receives the steam and gases of combustion from 
the under part, and the valves prevent their re- 
turn. Pochet calculates that for forty trains the 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 117 

ventilator will need to take care of 175,000 cubic feet 
of air and gas per mile ; one-half of this being air 
carried along by the exhausts. The same system, or 
a modification thereof, has been proposed for the 
Central Railway Tunnel through New York City. 

The railway connecting the Argentine Republic 
with Chili will call for eight tunnels through the Andes, 
with a total length of nearly 10 miles. These tunnels 
have been commenced at 26 points, and in their con- 
struction the natural water powers are being made to 
develop power, which is carried by electricity to where 
the borers need the power ; where it is used in air 
compression for the drills. 

The Jeddo tunnel is to be driven to drain the 
flooded mountains of Jeddo and Harleigh ; to run 
from Butler Valley, Pa., to the bottom of Ebervade 
Mammoth Vein, three miles, through solid rock, and 
to be eight feet square in the clear. It is to be done by 
the Jeddo Tunnel Company, Limited, and will drain 
all the collieries in the valley. 

The drainage tunnel for the Valley of Mexico, 9.76 
miles long, is being driven through hardened vol- 
canic mud, being the " tebebate" through which Mar- 
tinez, in 1608, drove a drainage tunnel four miles long 
in eleven months, with crude appliances and Indian 
laborers. 

The Metropolitan Railway of Paris is being laid 
under conditions which approximate those which ex- 
ist in New York, but the methods there employed 



118 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

are vastly different. Their method of procedure is 
to first trench down and lay the foundation wall and 
side wall of one side ; then cover over and use that 
side, and do the same thing on the other side ; then 
construct an arch upon natural earth between those 
two walls ; then excavate under this arch, and last, 
restore the top roadway to its original condition. In 
this way only one-third of the road width is closed 
to traffic at once, and then only in short sections. 
The moving and re-construction of the sewers pro- 
ceeds on the same system. 

The Reno tunnel proposed for Broadway, New 
York, would be of cast iron in places where there 
would be excessive dampness. The walls, floors, and 
roofs would be composed of flanged panels of cast iron 
about two feet wide, set in place in the rear of a rect- 
angular shield pushed forward hydraulically. The 
tunnel would have four compartments, two above and 
two below, each large enough for a single car track. 

The St. Clair River tunnel was opened September 
19, between Sarnia, Canada, and Port Huron, Mich. 
The architect, designer, and builder w r as Joseph Hob- 
son. Use was made of two shields, each 21 feet 
seven inches in diameter and six feet long, of inch- 
thick plate steel ; with the Haskins compressed air 
system. The walls of the tunnel are of segmentary 
iron plates bolted together ; 1,3 plates and a key form- 
ing a ring of the tunnel. The lower half is lined 
with massive brickwork. There are in the roof two 
ventilating tubes, 20 inches in diameter, extending to 
the center of the tunnel and passing to the entrance, 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 119 

where they connect with blowers. The tunnel is 
6050 feet long from cutting to cutting ; 1800 feet 
from the American cutting to the river edge, 2300 
feet across the river, and 1950 feet from the river 
edge to the Canadian cutting. The cost will fall be- 
low the original estimate of $3,000,000. By the time 
of publication of this book this tunnel should be fin- 
ished and opened. 

A tunnel scheme is devised by the N. Y. & L. T. R. 
R., to extend under the East River from Long Island 
City to New York. The terminus of the New York 
side is to be at West Forty-second Street and Tenth 
Avenue ; and that on the Long Island side at Thomp- 
son Avenue, near Dutch Kills. 

The Canadian Government has in contemplation a 
railway tunnel under the Straits of Northumberland, 
connecting the shores of New Brunswick with those 
of Prince Edward's Island. The greatest depth of 
water is 96 feet at high water, with rises of tides of 
six feet at spring and three at neaps. The distance 
is 13,200 yards between shores, or 13,500 from shaft to 
shaft exclusive of approaches. The length of tunnel 
from shaft to shaft would be 7.67 miles. To accom- 
modate Canadian and American rolling-stock it should 
have a diameter of 18 feet, and would cost about $700 
per yard, or, with land tunnel, etc., $11,127,500. 

It is decided to drive a tunnel instead of a bridge 
at Detroit. 

At Cleveland, O., Powell has submitted a design 



120 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

for constructing a steel tunnel for the waterworks 
intake, to extend two and a half miles into the lake. 
It is to be of half -inch plates in 1000-foot sections, 
and to be eight and a half feet in dimeter. The cost 
is put at half that of a brick tunnel ; the time of lay- 
ing four months, and the duration 50 years. 

There is a project to tunnel under the Niagara 
River from Buffalo to Fort Erie, Canada. A tunnel 
here would cheapen freight and passenger rates, and 
would be of service in uniting commercially two great 
countries between which Nature has set a barrier al- 
most as effective as it is marvelous and awe-inspiring. 
This tunnel would not only provide additional traffic 
facilities, but lessen the risk of intercommunication 
being broken off by accident to comparatively frail 
bridge-structures. 

The first proposed Irish Channel tunnel is stated 
by Sir Roper Lethbridge to be feasible, at a cost 
of £10,000,000. It would pass through its entire 
extent through a compact marl, red sandstone, and 
the rocks of the lower Silurian type. The shortest 
route is that proposed by Maccassey between the 
Mull of Cantire and the coast of Antrim, 14^ miles 
across the water ; but it requires ten miles additional 
railway. Mr. Barton's plan is for a tunnel 33 to 34 
miles long, of which 24£ would be under water. 
The plan between Whitehead and Port Patrick, pro- 
posed by F. W. McCullough, is but 23J- miles 
long, with 3 \ miles of land approaches. 

There will be a 14,700 feet single track tunnel un- 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 121 

der the Seine in Quilleboeuf ; the 8200 feet which 
pass under the river bed through the soft alluvium 
being lined with cast iron. 

A tubular tunnel under the Sound, between Elsi- 
nore and Helsingborg, is proposed ; of a length 
slightly over four miles, and raised on pillars con- 
sisting of iron boxes filled with concrete. The tunnel 
is to be below the liability of vessels of the deepest 
draft touching it. The pieces are to be over 100 
feet long, consisting of an inner and an outer wall with 
the space between filled with concrete. As the entire 
weight of the tunnel will be about equal to that of 
the water displaced, the pillars will be only slightly 
loaded. 

The Channel tubular railway proposed by Sir 
Edward Reed is to run in tubes of steel or iron and 
cemented concrete, laid on the bottom of the sea. In 
no place on the line selected does the depth of water 
exceed 200 feet ; and for several miles out from the 
English coast it is not 100. The grades would be 
less than one in 160 as a maximum ; being less than 
half that of the Severn tunnel. *The tubes would be 
towed by steamers from the building ports on the 
Channel as required ; and each length of tube laid 
is to be the means and the instrument of bringing 
the next length into position with accuracy. The 
plan is that one end of the pair of tubes — they being 
laid in parallel, each to accommodate an up and down 
line respectively — is to be kept afloat while the 
other end is attached to the continuous line at the 
bottom of the sea. Thus the end of the completed 



122 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

portion is kept afloat, and the length, consisting of a 
pair of tubes, is towed out and the operation of join- 
ing up performed. The tubes are to be supported 
on piers which are to have knife edges so as to cut 
into the bottom. The tubes are to be connected to- 
gether and to be 50 feet apart ; being about 20 feet 
in diameter and in 300-foot lengths. There seems to 
be no provision for ventilation. 



BRIDGES. 



While there is no great Brooklyn bridge now 
under way, and while the equally wonderful struc- 
ture across the Firth of Forth is an accomplished fact, 
the bridge builder has by no means retired from ac- 
tive circulation. The North River is to be spanned, at 
New York, with structures which should prove of 
even greater service to the metropolis of America 
than the East River affair, which the writer begs to 
think has been and is very much over-rated as a 
work of engineering and as a means of communica- 
tion between two great cities. 

According to the plans now being carried out, the 
great steel bridge across the Columbia at Vancouver 
will be one of the most notable as well as gigantic 
constructions of its kind. It will be 6000 feet from 
the Washington to the Oregon shore, will be double- 
tracked, with roadway on top for teams, and the 
whole erected upon pneumatic piers. The pivotal 
pier, or draw pier, will support a draw giving an 
opening of 200 feet space on either side for vessels, 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. l2§ 

and the span which is immediately south of the draw 
will be 375 feet. The whole structure will be of 
steel, built ten feet above the high water of 1876, 
and 40 feet above low water. Among the engineer- 
ing difficulties presented the most notable has been 
the sandy foundation, rendering it necessary to go 
down some eighty feet below low water to obtain a 
firm foundation. The estimated cost is $4,000,000. 

St. Louis is to have a new bridge for a double 
track railway ; consisting of three spans of steel su- 
perstructure upon masonry piers, each span giving 
a clear waterway of 500 feet ; the lowest point of the 
trusses to be 52 feet above the city datum. The 
total length of the bridge will be 2420 feet. 

Work has been begun on the new bridge over the 
Harlem at Seventh Avenue, from plans by Boiler. 
There will be a draw span of 412 feet, giving a clear 
waterway of 160 feet either side of the center pier. 
This draw will weigh about 2400 tons, and be moved 
by a 60 horse power engine. The bridge will be 67 
feet wide over all, with a 40-foot roadway. The 
length will be 731 feet, with 1740 feet of approaches ; 
making: a total of 2471 feet. 

THE HUDSON RIVER SUSPENSION BRIDGE. 

In the proposed Suspension Bridge between New 
York and Hoboken there are five divisions, a central 
span, two land spans, and two approaches. The 
bridge proper will start from Bloomfield and Twelfth 
Streets, Hoboken, and end at Twenty-third Street and 
Tenth Avenue, New York, the distance being 6650 feet. 



124 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

The central span will be 3100 feet from center to 
center of piers ; the shore spans are 750 feet each. 
The clear span of the central bay is to be 2920 feet. 
At the point selected there is a space of 2740 feet 
between pier head lines as stipulated by law. The 
structure is to be of steel for roadway and towers ; 
stone and concrete for anchorages and foundations. 
Double steel towers, 525 feet high, on foundations 
180 by 350 feet, will carry the four cables, which will 
pass over balancing saddles and be in pairs, 48 to 50 
inches in diameter each, and 55 feet apart vertically. 
The cables will be of steel wire, laid parallel and 
bound together at intervals, but not bound with 
wire, but surrounded by a watertight sheet steel 
fastening, with two inches of air space all round. 
The center and the cables will rise and fall nine and 
a half feet, thus lifting the bridge a maximum of four 
and a half feet. With 1330 locomotives upon it from 
end to end, only one-third its strength will be called 
upon. The dead weight of the structure will be 
nearly three and a half times this amount. There 
are to be three decks, although only one will be made 
at first — the lower one, which is to carry six tracks 
at first, later eight. On the second deck there are to 
be four rapid transit tracks, and there will be room 
for heavy surface tracks. The third deck is to give 
a 20-foot wide promenade. The character of the 
approaches renders it impossible to provide for a 
wagon way. 

ANOTHER NORTH RIVER BRIDGE. 

Lindenthal's proposed North River Bridge is to have 
a length of 7340 feet without approaches ; the link span 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 125 

3100 feet ; to carry 14 railway tracks ; capacity, 20 
freight trains, each 500 feet long and weighing 800 
tons, on each link span, or 30 500-foot long passenger 
trains weighing 550 tons ; average w r eight of super- 
structure per foot of span, 45,000 pounds ; average 
weight of steel and iron in superstructure per foot of 
span, 42,000 pounds ; total cost of construction alone, 
$28,500,000, which represents $3880 per lineal foot of 
bridge. It w T ould be absolutely safe if loaded to its 
full capacity with locomotives ; and it would take, to 
do this, 1800 locomotives, or 20 per cent, more than the 
number possessed by the Pennsylvania Railroad. The 
principal bridge members, the four cables, will be of 
steel wire of 175,000 pounds per square inch tensile 
strength, weighing only one-third as much as steel 
parts of large section. There will be needed but two 
deep submarine foundations. 

BRIDGE AT LYONS. 

Clavenao has a project for a bridge between Four- 
vierre and Croix Rousse, Lyons, France ; being an 
elliptical arch with a span of 214 meters and having 
three points of support for the viaduct, the estimated 
total length of which is 564 meters between the abut- 
ments ; the points of support being the key of the arch 
and two lattice-work towers supported symmetrically 
upon the haunches of the arch. The viaduct is to be 
formed of two great girders, 5.28 meters between 
axes, and 532 meters in height. The Eiffel establish- 
ment proposes for the same place a cantilever on 
mixed piers of masonry at the lower parts and metal 
above. The viaduct should carry a central span of 
142 meters, two lateral spans of 85 each, tw T o short 



126 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

spans of 63, and approaches of 50 and 90 ; total, 578 
meters. There are two large piers, two small ones, 
and two abutments. The large piers are 56 meters in 
height from the level of the landing-places to the 
point of support of the girders. Their section is 20 
by 10 meters at the base and 16 at the top. 

The Wolfe Island Bridge Company proposes to 
build a railway bridge across the St. Lawrence, from 
Cape Vincent to a point near Kingston, Ont. 

The Canadian Pacific R. R. Co. has put up a 3300- 
foot wooden bridge at Milford, Manitoba. There was 
used in its construction 1,300,000 feet, board measure, 
of material, and the time taken up in its erection was 
five weeks. 

The Verrugas Cantilever Bridge was opened for 
traffic about the first of the year. It is 575 feet long, 
105 feet between the towers being suspended. At its 
middle point it is 252 feet above the valley which it 
spans. The chasm is 235 feet wide. 

Chicago has a new type of folding bridge over the 
North Branch Canal at Weed Street. The river is 
150 feet wide between dock lines, and the bridge 
leaves 62 feet clear opening. Each half consists of 
two girder sections supporting the floor, hinged to- 
gether at their points of suspension and hung from 
the tower by tie-rods at the points of junction to the 
ends of the tower girder sections. The floors fold 
back and drop down, so that they assume a vertical 
position against the side of the tower, while one edge 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 127 

is higher than the bridge floor, and thus ])resents an im- 
passable barrier to teams while the draw is open. 
The varying mechanical power required to operate 
the bridge at various positions of the floor is produced 
by a series of cams which give the ropes a variable 
leverage, as in the fusee of a watch. 

Many German engineers prefer masonry to iron 
for bridges, and they have revived the practice of 
building masonry bridges with lead joints at the key 
and points of rupture near the spring lines. The Ro- 
mans used sheets of lead between cut stones, and in 
bridges built in England in 1833 bands of lead were 
placed in the joints, for two-thirds of the distance 
above the springing line. The use of lead is for 
maintaining the proper interval of joint and for uni- 
formly distributing the pressure. 

The United States law, that bridges over navigable 
streams must be built under sanction of the War De- 
partment, is to be enforced more vigorously than 
formerly. 



ARCHITECTURE AND BUILDING. 

It is to be hoped that the doom which befell the 
builders of the tower of Babel will not be the lot of 
those ambitious architects and builders who are vy- 
ing with each other as to who shall plan or erect the 
tallest building on earth. In the constructive sense 
the competition is useful, in that it draws out the ability 
to design, erect, and maintain upright structures of 



128 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

immense height, even upon the most shifty and unsta- 
ble soil ; but architecturally the competition is to be 
regretted, as beauty is sacrificed to size ; variety gives 
place to repetition ; and height seems to be the crown- 
ing prerequisite, entirely irrespective of fitness, 
beauty, first cost, or ultimate paying qualities. 

BIGGER TOWERS THAN" EIFFEL'S. 

A commencement has been made toward the build- 
ing, in London, of a tower higher than the Eiffel. 
Benjamin Becker and Mr. Alan D. Stewart are at 
work on the design. Sir Edward Watkin is at the 
head of the movement. 

THE CHICAGO SKY-PIERCER. 

Chicago is to have, during the World's Fair, a tower 
taller than Eiffel's. After long-continued negotia- 
tions, the Keystone Bridge Company of Pittsburgh 
made offers in writing, and the Keystone Company 
agreed to construct the metal portion of the tower 
and have it completed by February 1, 1893. The 
company expects that the tower will be built by 
October 12, 1892. In that case it will receive a bonus 
for the time saved. Options have been secured on 
grounds adjoining the World's Fair site and arrange- 
ments made with the World's Fair officials so that, if 
desired, the tower grounds may be included within 
their jurisdiction. 

The designs have been made by Engineer George 
S. Morrison of Chicago. The actual cost will be 
about $1,500,000. The cost of the Eiffel tower was 
a little less than $1,700,000. The difference is in the 
greater simplicity of design of the American tower 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 129 

and the use of standard and merchantable sizes of 
steel. 

The tower will be 1120 feet high, and will accom- 
modate more than 25,000 people at one time. Two 
of the many elevators will start from the ground and 
run up more than 1000 feet without change or stop, 
directly to the lookout landing. The diameter of 
the tower at the foundation level will be 440 feet. 

The three landings will be circular platforms, the 
first 250 feet in diameter and 200 feet from the ground, 
the second 150 feet in diameter and 400 feet from the 
ground, and the third landing, or "lantern," 60 feet 
in diameter and 1000 feet up. 

At the first landing there will be a grand colonnade 
around the outside, 15 feet wide and 738 feet mean 
circumference. On this four or five thousand people 
can be accommodated. Inside this will be space, in 
addition to that required for elevators and machinery, 
sufficient for four hotels or restaurants. 

In addition to the restaurants, there will be numerous 
kiosks, constructed in accordance with the architecture, 
styles, and customs of various countries, which will 
be used for the sale of curios, ornaments, fabrics, and 
other articles produced and manufactured in all lands. 

In the restaurants 6000 or 8000 persons may be 
comfortably seated and served at one time. Within 
and about the booths and surrounding platforms 
3000 more will have room to move about, make pur- 
chases, etc. 

The second landing is designated to be a grand 
promenade and picnic quarters in the day-time and a 
dancing-hall in the evening. It will accommodate at 
one time from 5000 to 6000 persons. 



130 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

The topmost landing will be two or three stories 
high, and will accommodate at one time from 1200 
to 1500 persons. Above this will be four offices for 
the signal service and scientific investigation. Above 
these will be the circular electric railway, carrying 
electric lights at night and signals by day. Still 
further above will be a lighthouse, to be provided 
with the most powerful revolving light ever con : 
structed, surmounted by a flagstaff bearing the Stars 
and Stripes. 

THE BLACKPOOL TOWER, 

The proposed Blackpool Tower will be almost rec- 
tangular in form, with a tower 100 feet square in the 
center. The base of this will be used as a circus. 
To the right and left will be large arcades for the sale 
of jewelry, etc. The second floor will be a spacious 
promenade concert room and floral hall, having an 
area of nearly 30,000 square feet, with two stories of 
open-air balconies and cafes facing the sea. The 
tower, between 400 and 500 feet high, will be in the 
center of the plot. It will be of wrought iron and 
steel, but its sixteen great legs will be formed of 
square iron lattice pillars, filled and clothed with 
Portland cement concrete. The building is to cost 
about $600,000. 

THE GIANT SEA-SAW TOWER. 

Mr. Oberlin Smith of Bridgeton, N. J., proposes 
for the Chicago Exposition of 1893 a tower with an 
oscillating beam, the tower to be permanent, 600 feet 
high, octagonal in section, and surmounted with a 
statue of Columbus in sheet metal, 125 feet high. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 131 

Pivoted to the tower there would be, during the Ex- 
position, a large oscillating beam, 1100 feet long and 
150 feet in greatest width. 

STEEL FOUNDATIONS FOR TALL BUILDINGS. 

Steel foundations are used for the enormous build- 
ings that are being erected in Chicago. There is first 
a layer of concrete large enough to reduce the pressure 
on the soil to one and one-half to two tons per square 
foot; on this there is placed a number of steel rails or 
beams, surmounted by a second layer shorter than and 
at right angles to the first. This is filled by a third 
and a fourth, each shorter than the one before it, until 
the base of the columns, which the foundation is to 
support, is reached. In one case a column with a base 
four feet square carrying a load requiring 16^ 
feet square on the soil, would have taken a 
seven-foot pier of stone, of 691 cubic feet ; but this 
was replaced by four layers of 75-pound 
rails, reducing the height between the concrete and 
the column to 20 inches, and the amount of ma- 
terial to 217 cubic feet — saving the space for a base- 
ment story. 

A Chicago firm recently contracted to have a 
building, with iron framework and stone and terra 
cotta filling, put up ten stories high in six weeks. 

A steel chimney for the Fair building, in Chicago, 
will be 250 feet high, and 9 feet 5 inches outside di- 
ameter ; its thickness running from -£% inch at the top 
to f at the bottom. The weight is 250 tons. A 
brick stack would weigh 700 tons; and its outside 
diameter would be 16i- feet. 



132 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

Monolithic construction is employed in the museum 
of the great Stanford University, Cal. It will be 
300 feet long, 50 in width, with two wings, and 
three stories high; and will be throughout of concrete 
and twisted iron. 

SLOW-BURNING CONSTRUCTION. 

Slow-burning construction seems to have superseded 
the old idea of making buildings fire-proof ; and 
wood is considered a better material than iron. In 
mill work the most important items are the floors. 
The recommendations of Mr. Woodbury, who has 
had most to do with the investigations in this line, are 
for floors carried on square wooden columns, eight 
feet apart, and of a strength sufficient to carry the 
load ; the floor to be of three-inch planks, over which 
should be laid two thicknesses of asbestos paper 
covered by one and one-fourth inch planking. Such 
a floor will weigh 16 to 17-J- pounds per square foot. 
Compound beams are usually found desirable. 

Aluminium is to be used in some of the towers in 
the public buildings of Philadelphia instead of cast 
iron, thus saving 400 tons in weight and the constant 
expense of painting. 



MINING AND QUARRYING. 

The treasures which exist below the earth's surface 
may be said to be practically inexhaustible. There 
are some few which seem at times to become rare, but 
the intelligence and skill of the expert mineralogist, 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 133 

added to the experience and ability of the mining 
engineer, find them in almost unexpected quarters of 
the earth, and drag them from their hiding-places to 
serve man's use or tickle his vanity. 

An electric dredging and amalgamating machine, 
which'has been tested near Denver, consists of a dredge 
arranged to be propelled backward and forward by a 
crew, or on its own track by its own power. Mounted 
thereon are four electric motors, one of which hand- 
les the dipper, another lifts it though the cut, a third 
swings the dipper to the hopper, and the fourth oper- 
ates the amalgamator upon the rear of the platform. 
The dredge handles two dippers per minute in hard 
cement, gravel, and bowlders, such as are usually 
found in placer mining. The dipper dredge has a 
capacity of one-half cubic yard. 

A new way of quarrying rock is based on the fact 
that the direction in which a rock is cleft by a powder 
blast may be regulated by properly shaping the blast- 
hole. Thus, to shear a sheet of stone ten feet deep 
from its horizontal bed in one piece — the face in 
front being free, and a natural seam separating the 
block at each end from the walls of the quarry — a series 
of holes is drilled along the rock parallel to its outer 
face (say 10 to 15 feet apart in sandstone of medium 
hardness). If the bed is a tight one, the holes should 
run clear through the sheet. They must be perfectly 
round and in a straight line with each other. They are 
then reamed out to form acute angles at the ends of 
the diameter which lies in a straight line joining the 
holes 5 preserving the ordinary circular section on 



134 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

the other diameter. On blasting, each of these 
angles forms the starting-point of a cleavage line 
running, practically, in a straight line between the 
holes, and the whole mass may be shifted on its 
bed by a good explosive, as Judson or black powder. 
A block of 400 tons of granite was split clean in two 
with thirteen ounces of FF powder, and a block of 
sandstone of less than 100 tons was barely started by 
2^ pounds of the same. As much air space as possible 
should be left between the explosive and the tamping. 
By making in each hole four angular grooves, at right 
angles to each other, two lines of cleavage may be 
started. 

The demand for 100-ton guns has made one for 
wolfram, which is now being mined in New Zealand, 
the ore being scheelite, or tungstate of lime. 

It is said that practically inexhaustible veins of 
silica have been discovered at Friedensville, Pa., and 
that they are admirably adapted for pottery. 

Prof. A. E. Foote, of Philadelphia, read a paper at 
the Washington meeting of the A. A. S., in which he 
describes a new locality for meteoric iron, near Canon 
Diablo, Arizona ; fragments of the iron containing 
diamonds. A mass of 40 pounds of the iron was highly 
resistant to the chisel, and even to the emery wheel; and 
in certain exposed cavities, black diamonds were found 
that cut polished corrundum with ease. Troilite and 
daubreclite were found. The mass was three per cent, 
nickel. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 135 

Several specimens of a new stone have been found 
in Nevada. It is dark green and susceptible of high 
polish. The State mineralogist calls it sariscite, or a 
composition of hydrous phosphate of aluminium. It 
is rare and is found scattered in nuggets of not more 
than fifty pounds embedded in silver ore. 

A copper mine in Japan, which was first worked 
1183 years ago, is soon to be reopened. The mine is 
in the Musashi province, and it is recorded in old 
Japanese works that this was the first copper mine 
ever worked in Japan. It was opened in the fifth 
year of Keiun, 1183 years ago, and the event was 
marked by changing the name of the era to Wado 
(Japanese for copper). Seven or eight of the ancient 
workings are said to exist just as they were eleven 
centuries ago, and trial diggings are being made. 

ORE-SORTING SHOVEL. 

Brunton's quartering shovel consists of a well-bal- 
anced flat-bottomed steel shovel, ten inches wide, hav- 
ing vertical sides and two central partitions 2 \ inches 
apart, dividing the shovel into three compartments, 
the center one being closed by a curved back and 
having a width one-quarter the whole. To use it, the 
shovel is pushed into a pile of finely crushed ore. As 
the shovel is raised it is drawn back at the same time 
with a sharp rotary motion to the right, which 
throws the ore contained in the outside compartment 
out from the back end of the shovel into a rejected 
ore pile. AVhen the necessary throw to accomplish 
this result has been given, the motion is reversed and 
the shovel brought rapidly to the left, discharging 



136 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

upon the pile the sample from the central compart- 
ment of the shovel. 

Russian mercury from Saigewa, near Mikitowka 
Station, on the Azof Railway, has already become an 
article of export, besides supplying the home con- 
sumption. 

In Galveston, in sinking an artesian well which is 
now 2040 feet in depth, gray and green clay mixed 
with wood, lime concretions, and pebbles were found 
at a depth of 1510 feet. The age of the w r ood is es- 
timated at 200,000 years by Professor Singley, and in 
the stratum, which is 100 feet in thickness, he found 
seeds resembling apple and huckleberry seeds. 

Several mines in the Connellsville region, Pa., have 
been lighted by electricity. The shafts vary from 
100 to nearly 1000 feet in depth. Heretofore, owing 
to the accumulation of firedamp gas, it has been dif- 
ficult to illuminate them and avoid the danger of 
causing fire. The lamps are distributed underground 
throughout the main walks leading to the shaft. 

A new use for the blower is in the removal of 
slack at the coal mines, etc. There is a positive blast 
blower, a worm discharging from the slack hopper, 
and a blast pipe connected with this worm discharge. 
The operation is on the same principle as that used in 
the sand blast ; and the saving of a small apparatus 
is $6.00 to $8.00 per day over the horse and cart plan. 

The Tonquin coal seams are being explored. One 
of them is 152 feet thick, of semi-anthracite, contain- 
ing eighty-seven per cent, of carbon. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 137 

Attention has been called to the fact that South 
Africa may become a rich petroleum-producing 
country, particularly in the Transvaal. 

A recently discovered deposit of mineral wax in 
Southern Oregon gives ozokerite that burns freely 
with dense smoke, but no odor. It has nearly all the 
properties of beeswax except stickiness. The new 
deposit is yellowish-white, and has low specific 
gravity. 

Mineral oil fields, regarded as practically inex- 
haustible, have been opened in a region extending 
three hundred miles east and west from Albuquerque, 
New Mexico. 

Northeastern Siberia has been opened to commerce 
by an expedition consisting of two ships and a tug, 
winch reached Karaoul, 160 miles up the Yenisei, 
without accident. Siberia is said to surpass the 
North American Continent in extent of cultivable 
soil ; to have the largest forests in the world, and to 
have immense mineral resources. 

A discovery of opals has been made near Moscow, 
State of Washington. 

Reports state that diamonds have been found in 
paying quantities in Demerara, South America. 

Natural gas has been found in Kentucky, in Meade 
County, 25 miles southwest of Louisville. The Ken- 
tucky Rock Gas Company controls the supply. 

The first ingots of California tin came from the 



138 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

Temescal Mines in April last. Oil fuel is used in the 
furnace. 

Antimony has been discovered in Victoria in the 
form of sulphide. 

The coal production of the United States in 1890 
was 141,229,515 short tons, worth at the mines, 
before shipment, $160,226,323, or $1.58 per short 
ton. The production of bituminous coal was 95,- 
629,026 short tons, valued at $94,346,809, or 99 cents 
per short ton. 



METALLURGY AND FOUNDRY PRACTICE. 

In metallurgy the chemist and the mechanical en- 
gineer go hand in hand ; each one dependent upon 
the skill and knowledge of the other, each eager to 
obtain from the other the solution of some problem 
which may not be solved either by mechanical or by 
chemical means alone. In these latter days the 
electrician, himself necessarily no mean mechanical 
engineer, is called on to perform tasks that would a 
generation ago have seemed magical ; and which, if 
offered publicity a very few centuries ago, would 
have savored of alchemy or of witchcraft. 

MECHANICAL PROCESSES. 

October 13 there was forged at South Bethlehem 
the largest steel gun ever made in this country. 
The work was performed by a Whitworth press, the 
largest in the world. When the ingot was taken 
from the furnace and placed on the press, the mam- 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 130 

moth ram was played rapidly upon it, and it soon 
grew to the required length. The gun will be a 13- 
inch tube, and when finished will be 42 feet long. 
It will be used on one of the new battle ships. 

Before the forging of the gun the largest castings 
ever made in this country were poured. Nineteen 
ladles, drawn by locomotives, were required to fill the 
immense mold. The weight of the casting was loO 
tons. The work of pouring it was conducted by 
John Fritz, general superintendent. The ladles were 
tilted and their contents poured into the mold by a hy- 
draulic crane. The castings will be used for the head 
of another large forging press which will be four 
times more powerful than the present Whitworth. 

The most powerful steam hammer in the world has 
been completed during the past year at the Bethlehem 
Iron Company's works. It strikes a 125-ton blow, and 
is to be used for forging ingots into armor plate. 
The ingots of metal weigh from 100 to 150 tons 
each, and they will be forged into desired sizes with 
great ease by the pounding of this enormous hammer. 
This hammer takes the championship honor away 
from the 100-ton giant hammer at the works of 
Schneider & Co. of Le Creusot. 

By a new German process, hollow forgings in iron 
or steel are made from solid blocks of red-hot or 
white-hot iron or steel. To produce a hollow cylinder, 
a piece of hot square metal is taken, the cross section 
of which, diagonally measured, corresponds to the 
diameter of the hollow cylinder to be produced, and 
a pointed core bar is then driven into the metal by 



140 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

means of a hammer or press, the lid of the matrix 
forming a guide for the core bar. When desired, 
the matrices may be formed with jackets in which 
circulates a cooling medium. The metal is thus forced 
to fill the cylindrical matrix, and has an opening 
through its center in the direction of its length. 
Hollow prismatic bodies may be produced in a manner 
similar to that which has been described, an impor- 
tant condition being stated to pertain to all cases, 
namely, that the metal to be operated upon shall be 
truly centered by the matrix. For hollow bodies of 
unusual length two core bars may be employed, 
entered into the metal from opposite ends ; and when 
steam hammers or presses are used, their frames may 
form guides for the matrix. 

Recently a new rolling mill has been added to the 
Krupp works which, it is stated, is not surpassed by 
any in the world. It is for rolling armor plates, and 
turns out the heaviest plates of this description that 
can possibly be required : that is, those of about 
28 inches thickness and nearly four yards wide. 
Each pair of crucible rollers, when in the rough 
state, weighed 100,000 pounds ; and the entire roll- 
ing mill, with its reversing engine, the large fur- 
naces, the cranes that can move 300,000 pounds, 
its bending presses, etc., form of themselves almost 
a complete plant. Immense shears cut through the 
plates as easily as ordinary shears cut through paper, 
and extremely thin plates are also produced. Auto- 
matic tackles are employed for raising and lowering 
the plates in their passage from one set of rolls to 
the other, and automatic devices for guiding them as 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 141 

they pass between the rollers or are taken from them. 
So automatic is this process that, without the aid of 
tongs or levers, the plates move back and forth 
between the rollers. 

Charles Weston Smith read a paper before the 
Royal United Service Institution on " Steel as Applied 
to Armor Plates," in which he proposes to make a steel 
plate having the advantages of compound plates and 
those of all steel plates also. This is to be done by 
casting, varying the sequentiated tempers of steel 
simultaneously in one ingot mold, so constructed in 
subdivisions that the varying tempers shall be pre- 
served, each in its integrate, while yet each shall so 
combine with the other as to form a perfectly graded 
whole, the rolled steel partition plates, which subdivide 
the mold, constituting a steel armor-plate ingot. 

Hydraulic compression of ingot steel receives less at- 
tention than warrantable, the rejection of so much of 
the average ingot as "pipe-end" being a great source 
of waste and reduction of daily mill capacity. 

The rolling of hollow stay bolts is an industry re- 
cently introduced, and claimed to possess special ad- 
vantages. Two pieces of iron, rolled in. U-shaped sec- 
tion, are laid together and wired in that position, these 
parts being then heated to a welding heat and run 
through rolls, and as the welded tube comes from the 
rolls it passes over a mandrel. Before reaching the 
second pair of rolls it cools slightly and shrinks upon 
the mandrel, and in this pair of rolls it is drawn from 
the mandrel and the interior cleared. In this way, by 



142 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

five repeated operations, there is obtained a hollow 
stay bolt of uniform interior diameter. The material 
must necessarily be the very best quality of charcoal 
iron ; the bolts are made in lengths of six feet. It is 
claimed that a considerable saving in expense is made 
by using the hollow stay-bolt iron, instead of drilling 
the ends of solid bolts after they are in position. 

Bessemer is experimenting on the manufacture of 
continuous sheets of wrought iron and steel direct 
from fluid metal ; and some of the conclusions at 
which he has arrived are given in a paper before the Iron 
and Steel Institute. His present plan consists in hav- 
ing an immense pair of horizontal rolls having water 
circulation, and between which fluid steel is poured 
from a crucible. The sheet falling between them runs, 
after a short passage in the air, between a pair of 
horizontal rolls, the axes of which are in an inclined 
plane, and then between a pair of ordinary horizon- 
tal rolls having their axes in a vertical plane. The 
process dispenses with the cost and wear and tear of 
casting molds, the labor of their removal and re-ar- 
rangement at each casting operation, the need of 
soaking pits or reheating furnaces, and the cost of 
labor and fuel for these last. Thin sheets so pro- 
duced are f ree, from scale ; and as there is no overlap 
of the plates in rolling, there is but little loss of metal 
in shearing. 

A new tuyere iron permits a burnt nozzle to be 
replaced without disjointing the water connections. 
This is effected by ground metal surfaces between the 
tips and the base, both in the inner and in the outer 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 143 

tube, the tip being bolted to the rest of the nozzle 
through lugs. 

Tire-rolling from ingots is being accomplished with 
great success in England by Munton, as reported by 
S. Higgins of Bradley Grove, Rotherham, England. 
The work of making tire blooms from ingots is accom- 
plished at the rate of forty per hour, all day long. A 
tire can be rolled from a bloom 6£ inches wide, and 
finished 9 \ inches wide to perfect section. A 1200- 
pound bloom can be rolled out to five feet diameter, 
and the process reversed and the metal rolled back to 
a bloom in two minutes, then rolled out again to 
finishing size, all at one heat. 

An instrument for detecting flaws in castings, etc., 
consists of a small pneumatic tapper, worked by the 
hand and connected with a telephone and microphone. 
It is called a sciseophone. 

The forgings necessary for the Fall River Line 
steamer Puritan are the largest ever made in the 
United States ; being from 28 to 30 inches in diame- 
ter and over 36 feet in length, and weighing, finished, 
over 75,000 pounds each. 

Tests of nickel-steel armor plates at Annapolis 
show its superiority over ordinary steel for this 
purpose. 

A new method of planishing pipes and plates is 
by the suspension pneumatic power hammer made by 
Th waites Bros. There are two belt-driven disk cranks, 



144 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

connected with a hollow steel arm by a connecting rod. 
The arm is divided inside into two compartments, 
each having a phosphor-bronze air piston, and which 
are connected by a steel piston rod, the top air piston 
forming a connection for the small end of the connect- 
ing rod. The machine delivers 500 blows per minute. 
The rod to be planished is held in journals on two 
carriages. When a pipe is to be worked it is held 
upon a mandril supported between the two carriages. 
Pipes up to four feet in diameter may be worked. 

Messenez has described an apparatus for taking 
sulphur from pig iron in masses of 70 to 120 tons ; 
sulphurated pig iron, poor in manganese, being added 
in a fluid condition to manganiferous molten pig iron 
poor in sulphur ; the result being to take the sulphur 
out of the iron and make a manganese sulphur 
slag. 

Carulla has shown that the interior of a piece 'of 
mild steel may be raised to the fusing point, while the 
outside remains in a solid state ; this being made 
possible by the outside becoming decarburized. 

Iron and steel plates are now lead-coated, the lead 
bath being 98^- per cent. pure. The plates are 
first pickled, electricity being called in to hasten the 
process ; then the plates are passed into lime water, 
next into clear water ; then into a bath of neutral 
solution of zinc and tin chlorides ; next into a steam 
drying chamber which leaves on them a coat of the 
chlorides to protect against oxidation. Then the 
plates are passed into the lead bath. The coating 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 145 

may be made as thin as two ounces per square foot of 
plate. 

On the night of July 6, 1891, the second turn in the 
converting department of the Edgar Thomson Steel 
Works at Braddock made 60 heats, and turned out 
930 tons of steel ; the best previous record being 
850. 

Kupfelweiser has put into operation a modification 
of the open hearth process of steel-making, by which 
he uses molten iron from the blast furnace. The 
charges consist of 90 per cent, of cast iron, and 10 
per cent, of scrap, with the necessary ore for temper- 
ing, and lime for dephosphorizing. 

The furnace which Palmer's Shipbuilding and Iron 
Company, Limited, put up at Jarrow-on-Tyne, is 
virtually an American one as regards its lines and 
method of working ; being an exact copy of the most 
recent one at the Edgar Thomson Works of Carnegie 
Bros., a furnace which has produced up to 2500 tons 
of pig iron per week, this being more than double the 
output of the best English hematite furnaces, nearly 
five times as much as the ordinary Cleveland furnace, 
and almost twelve times as much as the average 
Scotch furnace. 

Still, as it has to work upon only a 50 per cent, ore, 
it will not be able to do so much as its mate in 
America, which gets 60 to 63 per cent, ore, of a much 
less refractory type. 



146 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

ELECTRICAL PROCESSES.* 

Hopf ner proposes to extract silver and copper from 
other ores by electrolyzation. He uses a bath which 
is divided into compartments by diaphragms. In 
one compartment there are electrolytically insoluble 
anodes, and in the other copper cathodes. A double 
salt of copper chloride and a halogen salt circulates 
around the anodes, and a similar solution around the 
cathodes. On the copper, sponge copper is deposited 
at the rate of 2.38 grams per ampere-hour. As the 
liquid passes the cathode, it parts with its copper and 
is available for use again ; but the copper is present 
as cupric instead of cuprous chloride, aud the latter 
is made to leave the bath in a continuous stream. 

At Lauffen Neuhousen, on the Rhine, there is a 
works for the manufacture of aluminium, run by the 
Aluminium Industry Company, Limited, of Zurich. 
The process consists in the action of an electric cur- 
rent upon cryolite. 

The two larger aluminium machines are constructed 
to develop 14,000 amperes of current at thirty volts, 
or 420,000 watts, working day and night ; but the 
power may be increased to 500,000 watts. 

Dixon has manufactured aluminium by the elec- 
trolytic decomposition of a molten halogen salt, one 
of the elements of which is caused to react upon the 
oxide, or other suitable compound of the metal, or of 
a suitable mixture thereof with carbonaceous material, 

* See also under the various Electrical headings, pages 241 
to 307. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 147 

while the other element of the salt acts on the resulting 
compound. 

Soldering aluminium is now accomplished with 
tolerable ease, by the employment of sheets of the 
metal, or of an alloy thereof, that may be soldered 
with an ordinary soldering iron and thin solder. The 
line of joint is prepared by a mixture of resin, tallow, 
and neutral chloride of zinc ; scraping being avoided. 
But any sheet aluminium may be readily soldered if 
previously given a light plating of copper. If, how- 
ever, it be suddenly heated the copper will strip off. 
Aluminium bronze containing five per cent, of alumin- 
ium may be soldered with ordinary soft tin solder ; 
but the more aluminium there is, the more difficult the 
operation. 

Hard soldering offers no difficulties. A good solder 
is made by smelting fifty-two parts of copper, forty- 
six of zinc, and two of tin ; borax being the flux. 
Tubes made from sheets soldered with this may be 
drawn down on a mandrel. 

NEW ALLOYS. 

J. W. Langley has found that if pure aluminium be 
alloyed with from one-half per cent, to ten per cent, of 
titanium, the result will be harder than aluminium, 
nearly as uncorrodable, and capable of acquiring by 
hammering or rolling a greater elasticity and hard- 
ness than the pure aluminium. These alloys are 
fusible below the melting point of steel. When 
there is less than five per cent, of titanium, the alloy 
is nearly as malleable as pure aluminium. 



148 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

Experiments have been made at the Forges de 
Montataire, with a nickel and iron alloy having 
the following composition ; carbon, 0.15 to 0.05 ; 
phosphorus, 0.02 to 0.05; nickel, 25 per cent.; 
iron, 74 per cent. Round bars, 0.58 inches in diameter 
turned to 0.47 inches in diameter, had, when unan- 
nealed, a tensile strength of 56.6 gross tons per square 
inch, with an elongation of 19 per cent, in 8 inches. 
Thus, after annealing, the results were : tensile 
strength, 51.5 gross tons per square inch ; elongation, 
29.5 per cent, in 8 inches. 

The Stefanite process aims at introducing aluminium 
into iron, either in the blast furnace, the cupola, 
or the puddling furnace. During the process of 
manufacture the liberation of aluminium goes on at 
the same time as the manufacture or the melting of 
the iron ; the newly formed metal being instantly 
alloyed with the iron. The intention is to take ad- 
vantage of the effect that aluminium has of lowering 
the melting point and increasing the fluidity of iron. 

The process consists in an addition to the iron ore, 
or to the pig, of emery and alum. 

Held has produced a new gold-colored alloy of 
copper and antimony, in the proportion of 100 to 6, 
using a flux of wood ashes, magnesia, and carbonate of 
lime. It can be rolled, forged, and soldered in the 
same way as gold, and is not tarnished by ammonia 
and acid vapors. It is said to cost 25 cents per pound 
in the ingot. 

In a discussion before the British Institution of Me- 
chanical Engineers, Hatfield stated, as an approxi- 



EECOED OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 149 

mate classification in the light of experiments on 
steel made up to date, that no amount of experiment 
or theory would get over the fact that carbon alone 
produced water-quenching hardening ; that is, con- 
ferred upon iron the property of becoming hard when 
water-quenched, and of causing sufficient hardness to 
scratch glass or form the cutting-edge of a tool. 
Nickel and manganese, when added in sufficient 
quantities, strongly toughen iron, but do not confer 
the property of water-quenching hardness. Chro- 
mium and tungsten toughen iron, but act much less 
powerfully than nickel and manganese. 

Aluminium, silicon, sulphur, phosphorus, arsenic, 
and copper, while agreeing in their general properties 
of not conferring hardness upon iron, may be divided 
into two sections. Aluminium and silicon in one 
section do not act so powerfully in destroying malle- 
ability and toughness as the others, but this is a 
matter of only degree. The others, when present in 
but small quantities, destroy malleability and ductility 
either in the hot or in the cold state. Phosphorus pro- 
duces a similar effect, but may be present in larger 
quantities before red-shortness occurs ; causing 
serious brittleness in the cold state. Iron will not 
alloy with lead and tin. The addition of cobalt did 
not give hardness. 

Experiments of the French government show that 
an alloy of aluminium with six per cent, of copper is 
twice as strong as pure aluminium, and only six per 
cent, heavier. 

Aluminium in steel ingots has been shown to have 



150 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

the property of making them tough and sound, by 
reason of its occluding carbonic oxide. Arnold blew 
40 gallons of carbonic oxide through a crucible of 
molten steel containing aluminium, with the result that 
the carbon in the steel increased thirty-five per cent, 
owing to the reduction of the gas by the aluminium. 

Manganese steel is proposed for bridge-pins, by 
reason of its remarkable wear-resisting powers. The 
trouble would be to cut threads upon it. They would 
have to be forged upon the pins. 

A new manganese bronze is an alloy of iron, copper, 
zinc, and manganese ; it has a red gold color, takes a 
good polish, and resists acid, sulphur, water, and sea 
water. Its tensile strength in a casting is 60,000 to 
65,000 pounds per square inch. 

What is claimed to be a most valuable alloy has re- 
cently been brought to notice, the constituents of the 
same being copper and antimony, in the proportion 
of 100 to 6. The process of production consists in 
melting the copper and subsequently adding the 
antimony, and, when both of these are melted and 
intimately mixed, fluxing the mass in the crucible 
with an addition of wood ashes, magnesium, and car- 
bonate of lime, which has the important effect of re- 
moving porosity and increasing the density of the 
metal when cast. The alloy can be rolled, forged, 
and soldered in the same manner as gold, which it 
very closely resembles when polished, the gold color 
being unchanged even after long exposure to ammonia 
and acid vapors in the atmosphere. The cost of this 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 151 

alloy in the ingot is said to be about twenty-five cents 
per pound. 

Several new alloys have been invented recently. 
They are nickel-aluminium, for decorative threads ; 
zinc-nickel, for a pigment ; platinide, composed of 
platinum, nickel, gold, and iron, for crucibles and 
chemical utensils ; roseine, composed of nickel, silver, 
aluminium, and tin, for jewelers' work ; sun-bronze, 
composed of cobalt, aluminium, and copper ; metal- 
line, composed of cobalt, aluminium, iron, and 
copper. 

FOUISDRY PRACTICE. 

The largest casting ever poured in the United 
States was made October 13, at Bethlehem, Pa., being 
part of a machine which will be used in the manufac- 
ture of war material for the Government. It will 
weigh, when finished, 330,000 pounds. 

In Richard's process of casting steel car- wheels the 
mold is so arranged that the metal will overflow 
through the hub bands before the rim is entirely filled, 
and before the feeding rim is entirely finished. That 
result is obtained by making the hub opening to have 
less resistance than the rim vents. The overflow at the 
hub is intended to dislodge and carry out of the 
metal certain impurities ; but at a certain point it 
needs to be checked to prevent the latter feeding of 
the rim. 

Mr. David Spence says that he has used aluminium 
in foundry practice, and found it excellent to make 



152 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

iron fluid and clean ; taking out all the impurities 
when it is charged in the cupola with the pig iron. 
Ten pounds of Cowles' ferro-aluminium to 2000 of 
pig iron will produce good sound castings, free from 
blow holes. He says also that it is as good in the 
case of crucible steel as with iron ; producing a sharp 
and solid casting, and making a uniform grain. It 
takes away the tendency to chill in casting iron. In 
steel it reduces the shrinkage and increases the welding 
properties of both wrought iron and steel. It does 
not weaken the iron, but strengthens it. 

Carbon cores are now supplied for casting, instead 
of sand cores; being smoother and tougher, and 
keeping any length of time. They are perforated 
lengthwise. 

The art of casting large statues of bronze in one 
piece, as practiced by Benvenuto Cellini in casting 
the "Perseus," and which has been a lost art, has been 
rediscovered ; being the cire perdue process. From 
the clay model a plaster reproduction is made ; from 
this matrix, which is furnished with a core, the matrix 
being coated with wax of the thickness desired for the 
bronze, a mold is made, then heated, the wax running 
out and leaving space for the bronze to be poured in. 

Molding-sand has been found to be much improved 
by being mixed with a centrifugal mixer instead of 
being simply riddled ; as the particles of clay or groups 
of sand grains are so thoroughly disintegrated and 
mixed with the coal dust, that the gas generated in 
the mold can get around every particle of sand and 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 153 

escape easily and equably, which is a desideratum in 
fine casting. The centrifugally mixed sand is also 
much tougher than that which is riddled. 

The manufacture of tin plate articles is to be tried 
by Norton Bros., Maywood, 111., by making the 
articles of sheet iron and tinning them when finished. 

It is said, on the authority of the Philadelphia 
Record, that an establishment near Front and Laurel 
streets, Philadelphia, turns out 20 or more boxes of 
terne plate per day. The N. & G. Taylor Co., of 
Philadelphia, is the firm that is making the experi- 
ments. 

Tin or rather terne plate is said to be made in the 
United States ; but there is no indication that the 
required supply (about 369,000 tons, of the 562,000 
tons needed by the world each year) will be made here 
for some time to come. 

A development of the pig iron trade in this country 
is the establishment of a pig iron storage yard, which 
issues certificates of deposit which are saleable by 
transfer, the same as so much iron. One company 
has over twenty of such yards in Virginia, West 
Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. 
At one time the amount stored in alLwas over 55,000 
pounds. 

The discovery of natural gas in the Cleveland dis- 
trict (England) should prove of enormous advantage 
to the chemical and metallurgical industries carried 
on in that famous section. 



154 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

Palladium is now used considerably to plate watch 
movements, being whiter, lighter, and more fusible 
than platinum. About ^y grain is enough to coat the 
works of an ordinary sized watch. 

The peculiar weakness of iron and steel at a blue 
heat has been brought to the attention of railway 
men, and named blue-shortness. It is an old complaint, 
but attention has been brought to it in connection 
with damage done by working at such temperatures 
in recent important constructions. 

The experiments with armor steel at Annapolis 
resulted in the classification of the three kinds of 
plates in this order of superiority : nickel steel, all 
steel, compound. 

The Steel Pipe Company, of Kirkcaldy, is doing 
much to show the superiority of steel pipes over 
wrought iron. 

The Master Car Builders have had tests made of 
the strength of malleable iron, and find it to run 
from 28,200 pounds, on a sample 1.52 by 1.54 inches, 
to 34,700 in one 1.52 by 6.25. The elongation was 
from one to two per cent, in four inches. The ductil- 
ity is seen to be low. 

Tests made as to the comparative rusting of iron 
and soft Bessemer steel show iron to lose 2.06 per cent, 
of its original weight, and steel only 1.79 per cent., 
in sixty-one days, having been taken up once in that 
time and cleaned. 



HECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 155 

MACHINE SHOP PRACTICE. 

NEW SHAPING AND PLANING MACHINES. 

The past year has witnessed the development of 
the screw sh'aper, into several convenient forms. The 
first shape in which we knew it was in the Richards 
open side planer and shaper, in which the saddle was 
carried along by a rapidly moving screw and reversed 
by striking adjustable tappets placed along on the rod ; 
the rotation of the screw being accomplished by high 
speed pulleys and shifting belts without the use of 
gearing ; the work being fastened and the tool and 
saddle being the moving parts as in the old-fashioned 
pit planer. One heavy form of the machine, for plate 
scarfing or planing, has two traveling heads, one at 
each end of a stationary bed or table, and each driven 
independently by a separate countershaft so that wide 
plates may be planed or spotted off, using at will one 
or both heads, or long or short stroke. The table is 
made to swivel or set at certain angles by a screw and 
hand wheel, to increase its convenience in scarfing 
steel ship-plates, for which purpose the machine was 
specially constructed. The operator stands in front 
between the bed, where both belt-shifters and all 
hand wheels are easily handled. 

Another machine, employing the same principle of 
the high speed belt driven screw and the traveling 
saddles bearing head, is the shaper proper, which planes 
up to 30 inches long, a column machine having an 
adjusting table to which the auxiliary table will bolt 
when desired ; this smaller table being removable 
and leaving an angle plate to which long pieces may 



156 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

be bolted. The table is raised and lowered by a crank 
and screw. The tool slide, w r hich has downward feed 
by hand, and cross feed by power, is on a swiveling 
base so that angle work can be planed. While siding 
down or doing angle work the tool slide may be locked 
fast. The speed of this tool, as of all others em- 
ploying the screw motion, is the same at all parts of 
the stroke. The length of stroke may be altered while 
the machine is running. 

A planing machine, made by Bertram of Montreal, 
has under the bed a rack, driven by a pinion, the shaft 
of which bears a worm wheel driven by a worm, the 
direction of motion of which is reversible by shifting 
belts. 

A new style planing machine, made by Berry & 
Sons, Saverly Bridge, England, has its back standards 
intended to be bolted to a w r all, or to a timber frame- 
work. A surface measuring 12 by 12 feet may be 
machined at one setting. 

RECENT MILLING MACHINES. 

A plain milling machine, brought out during 1891 
by Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Co., is in many re- 
spects similar to their universal milling machine, but 
without provision for cutting spirals,as the platen moves 
at right angles to the spindle ; and there is no spiral 
head or footstock. There is an overhanofingf arm, 
which provides for either a center or outer bearing 
for the arbor. This arm is a brace by which it may 
be readily connected to the knee. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 157 

The Pratt & Whitney Co. has brought out a mill- 
ing machine for removing at one operation the super- 
fluous metal in making a wrought iron or wrought 
steel I-section connecting rod. In a recent trial this 
tool took a cut 3^ inches wide and l T 3 g- inches deep 
in the groove, and one 4| inches wide and ^ inches 
deep at the top. The feed was If inches per minute, 
so that the machine took off eight cubic inches per 
minute. In cast iron the same machine has taken off 
9J- cubic inches per minute. The cutter spindle is 
5^ inches in diameter in the front journal and 10 
inches long. 

DRILLING MACHINES. 

A very radical departure from the usual line of de- 
sign in radial drills is the construction and arrange- 
ment of the arm, which is cylindrical and made to 
slide through a sleeve bearing at the top of the 
vertical column, the drill spindle being adjusted to 
and from the column by sliding the arm through this 
bearing instead of having a sliding carriage or head 
fitted to the arm. Attached rigidly to the bed plate 
there is a stump which is turned true outside, and has 
fitted to it the vertical column. This column may be 
raised and lowered on the stump by a vertical screw 
at the side, which is driven by power and engages in 
a nut attached to a ring, on which the head of the 
column is supported when undamped. The arm is 
moved in and out through the bearing in the column 
by a screw driven by a crank and gears. 

A swing jib countersink drilling machine, made by 
Jones, Boivton & Co., 19 Castle St., Liverpool, is in- 



158 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

tended to countersink all the holes in a plate 16 by 5 
feet, without any movement of the plate. The drill 
spindle may be moved laterally on a swinging jib at- 
tached to the wall or to columns, and the spindle may be 
moved in and out, toward or from the center of 



swing. 



GRINDING AND POLISHING MACHINES. 



Tool-grinding machines are becoming more and 
more common, the number of classes of manufac- 
turers that use them, as well as the mere number of 
such machines made and sold, increasing. This in- 
troduction has been despite the difficulty that, when 
tempered tools are ground, it has been found necessary 
to rotate them at comparatively slow speed or else to 
use water with them, to keep from drawing the tem- 
per of the tools ; and the application of water is 
not always convenient, by reason of its flying off by 
so-called centrifugal force when the wheel speed is 
rapid. One means of catching water and applying 
it again and again to the wheel, which has met 
with considerable favor during the past year, is to 
apply the water at a point near the center of the stone 
or wheel, capillary attraction causing it to stick to 
the surface and accumulate until the motion of 
the wheel makes it fly toward the largest diameter, 
where it is met by a case and conducted again to the 
tank. The faster the wheel is turned, the more 
rapidly the water flows, permitting the rate of wheel 
speed to be greatly increased. An upright form of 
such a grinding machine has a vertical axis and a 
wheel with its grinding face slightly beveled, to suit 
the grinding of long knives, which have to lie across 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 159 

the wheel from one side to the other. It is particu- 
larly adapted for grinding wood- working tools having 
straight edges. The water is brought to and carried 
over the surface of the wheel, and back to the tank, 
by so-called centrifugal force. 

Another modification of the same principle is a 
gouge and cutter-grinder, which has a horizontal con- 
ical grinder for grinding the inside of tools having 
concave cutting edges ; working all tools to a true 
circular arc. 

A new twist-drill grinder is for the purpose of 
swinging the drill laterally and radially, at the same 
time that it is turned in grinding. It may be 
attached to an ordinary grindstone, and is made 
by Edmeston of Manchester. 

A surface grinding machine, brought out by the 
Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Co. during 1891, is for finish- 
ing small parts of machinery, tools, dies, punches, etc. 
The wheel is mounted upon a slide which has vertical 
traverse, and the table which bears the work is given 
lengthwise or crosswise travel, in both cases auto- 
matically; the lengthwise travel being limited by stops 
which can be set to suit the operator. Either of 
these motions can be made by hand with hand wheels. 
The table permits of a small pair of centers being 
fastened to it, to permit sharpening and finishing the 
grooves of the taps, reamers, etc. There is an adjust- 
able swiveling vise which will swing in either direc- 
tion 45° from the horizontal. 

The same establishment has introduced a new 
pattern of universal grinding machine, suitable for 



160 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

both straight and taper internal and external 
grinding. In this there is a sliding table which 
moves on one V and one flat slide, and which carries 
the head and foot-stock, so that the machine may be 
set for taper grinding or straight, at will, without its 
centers being thrown out of line. 

For heavy work the swiveling table is clamped to 
the sliding table ; but for ordinary work the head 
of the table gives sufficient stability without clamp- 
ing. 

An adjusting screw and scale enable the table to 
be set to the desired taper and show the amount in 
degrees, and also in inches per foot. The wheel bed 
rests upon a rearward projection of the base, which 
extends to the floor and stands upon one of the three 
feet by which the base is supported. The circum- 
ference of an arc, at the lower edge of the wheel bed, 
is graduated to degrees, so that it may be set at any 
desired angle relative to the sliding table. The 
wheel plates rest upon a thick circular bearing, the 
mean diameter of which is greater than the distance 
between the wheel spindle bearings, this providing a 
steady support for the wheel stand and doing away 
with rocking. The wheel stand and adjoining parts 
are rigidly connected with the rearward projection of 
the base to do away with vibration of the wheel ; the 
feed of the table is positive, and it can be moved by a 
hand wheel if desired. The table is reversed by a 
lever worked by dogs in the same way as upon a 
planer ; and there is a special contrivance for very 
delicate adjustment of stroke length. The cross feed 
is worked by a hand wheel having graduations to 5- 
10,000 of an inch. The head-stock swivels upon the 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 161 

center pin, and its circumference at the lower edge is 
graduated in degrees. Work may be ground upon 
two dead centers, or upon one live and one dead 
center, or may be held in a chuck upon the head- stock. 
Either internal or external tapers may be ground with- 
out changing any of the settings. 

Altogether this machine is of a character to be 
specially desirable and useful to those having much 
work with cylindrical or conical surfaces requiring to 
be exactly sized and finely finished, as, for instance, in 
the manufacture of tools and gauges and small parts of 
machines. 

A very convenient polishing wheel stand designed 
by the Brown & Sharpe Mfg. Co. has a hollow verti- 
cal column and such a form of wheel guard that the 
draught caused by the rapid movement of the wheel 
carries the larger part of the dust, produced by grind- 
ing, from the operator to the bottom of the stand. 
This may be connected with a blower. 

MISCELLANEOUS TOOLS AND MACHINES. 

A large vertical cylinder-boring machine, built 
by Sellers & Co., for the Newport News Ship 
Building and Dock Co., has a boring bar 16 inches 
in diameter, with heads for boring cylinders up to 
108 inches in diameter ; and also with a double face 
and head, each having a compound slide rest to face 
120 inches in diameter. The vertical standards are 
13 feet apart, and the height from the sole plate to 
the inner side of the boring head in position, 10 
feet. The boring bar can be lifted out through the 
top bearing without disturbing the driving gear or 



162 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

the feed gear. The feed is automatic, and may be 
thrown out at any time by a hand lever, and the bor- 
ing or facing head may be moved slowly in either 
direction by the hand lever, or quickly by power by 
reverse-friction clutches. A small horizontal high- 
speed engine is attached to one of the standards, and 
carries on its crank shaft a cone pulley to vary the 
boring-bar speed. The machine weighs 117,500 
pounds. 

A helix-forming machine, made by Watson, Laid- 
law & Co., is for giving a helical form to straight 
bars. They are bent by passing them through a 
series of rollers, preferably three. One of them is 
carried on the end of a shaft ; the upper or neck 
bearing of this surface is an axis for a turntable, 
which carries one of the rollers at a determined dis- 
tance from the revolving center of the turntable. 
The third roller is on a short shaft running on a bear- 
ing cast on the framework and placed just under- 
neath the turntable. The roller carried upon the 
turntable may be moved into any desired position 
relative to the other two, to obtain the required 
curve. Suitable grooves are made in all the rollers 
to suit the section of the bar. 

A pneumatic tire-hammer, built by the Kalker 
Werkzeug Machinen Fabrik, of Kalk, near Cologne, 
Germany, is for fixing in place the tires of railway 
wheels. The ring is secured by hammering down 
the edge. There is a strong standard, carrying a fly- 
wheel, fast and loose pulleys, and a crank wheel, 
which by means of a rod works a piston, 'fitting near- 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 163 

ly airtight into a cylinder attached to the standard. 
A second piston, carrying the tup, enters the lower 
part of this cylinder, leaving a free space between 
the two cylinders. The lower portion of the cylinder, 
in which the tup piston travels, makes an angle with 
the power. The smaller sizes give 500 blows per 
minute. 

A new cold saw for metals has been introduced by 
Carnegie Brothers. It is a circular saw of fine steel, 
hard tempered ; one-quarter inch thick at the rim, less 
in the center. It cuts but one inch a minute. The 
work is stationary, and the saw is traveled along the 
table. It runs in a solution of ten pounds of whale 
oil soap, fifteen of sal soda, two gallons of lamp oil, 
and enough water to make forty gallons. 

A new portable rail saw is driven from the circum- 
ference, the driving gear engaging back of the teeth. 
It will cut a 70-pound rail in from eight to twelve 
minutes. The machine weighs -B 140 pounds. 

A boiler tube expanding machine for locomotive 
work has a vertical column mounted on a w r ooden 
platform carried on four truck wheels. On the col- 
umn is a cross-head holding a mechanism which drives 
a universal shaft. The cross-head is raised and low- 
ered by a crank. Power is derived from a stationary 
engine or from any convenient shafting. Rail clamps 
hold the machine in position in front of a locomotive. 
By it 262 tubes were expanded at both ends, ready 
for beading, in five hours, including the changing of 
the machine from one end of the belt away to the 



104 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

other. The machine may also be used for drilling 
and tapping stay-bolt holes, etc. 

A very useful chucking machine is of the vertical 
type, the work being chucked upon a horizontal 
table, with a turret head sliding in vertical ways, so 
that once a piece is chucked, five tools may be used 
upon it without further adjustment. The feed is 
automatic, and has ample range of speed. The turret 
slide is counterbalanced by a weight inside the 
column, and has quick return motion by hand. In this 
machine the spindle cannot wear out of line with the 
turret slides ; the work is easily trued and fastened 
in place, and the chips falling through the center of 
the spindle to the floor do not clog nor dull the tools. 

A new form of micrometer caliper, for measuring 
the external diameter of screw threads, is similar to 
the usual Brown & Sharpe micrometer caliper, but 
one of its points is sharp, so as to reach about to the 
bottom of the screw thread, and the other a loose 
piece shaped to conform to the thread of the screw to 
be measured ; this latter piece fits over the thread 
directly opposite the place touched by the sharp point. 
Thus the measurement is given from the bottom of 
one thread to the top of the opposite one, and this 
will be equivalent to the diameter of the pitch circle. 

The Circlip is the name of a device to fulfill the 
office usually performed by split pins. It consists of 
a steel ring sprung into a groove on the shaft or pin 
which it is desired to secure. The ring is a part of 
a cone, its wider end projecting above the groove 



Record of scientific progress. 165 

and the general surface of the shaft, and forms an 
abutment preventing endwise motion. It may be 
sprung into place with the lingers, and removed by a 
pointed piece of wire. When it is placed next a 
loose pulley, there is required a washer which has 
in it a pin which takes into the opening in the 
" circlip." 

NEW HOISTING BLOCK. 

A mechanism which, while it has been two or more 
years in developing, has been introduced during 1891, 
is the Weston triplex spur gear block. All the 
mechanism is grouped symmetrically upon a single 
horizontal axis, with as little vertical height as pos- 
sible to increase the maximum amount of hoist. The 
power is applied to an endless chain passing over a 
sprocketed chain wheel on one end of a central shaft, 
and is transmitted thereby to spur gearing contained 
in a housing on the other side of the block. There 
are two chains ; one for hoisting and the other for 
releasing. The main load chain passes over a sprocket 
chain sheave in the center of the block, one of its ends 
having a suitable hook for receiving the load, and 
the other being looped up and permanently fastened 
to the block frame. This arrangement diminishes 
the length of slack chain, prevents it from fouling, 
and adds much to the general convenience of the 
block. A hand wheel carries the power though the 
central shaft to a steel pinion at the opposite end, which 
in turn engages with three planet wheels surrounding 
it. These latter are of hard bronze and have cast with 
them a series of similar pinions, which will engage 
with an annular gear cast in the stationary frame of 



166 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

the block. The three double planet wheels are car- 
ried in a frame or cage which supports both ends of 
each of the pins forming the axis of the wheels. As 
the central shaft is turned, the whole cage and its 
three pinions thus rotate slowly within the housing 
of the block. 

The inner side of the pinion cage consists of a disk, 
keyed to one end of the wheel sleeve forming a part 
of and carrying the hoisting chain sheave, so that the 
rotary motion of the pinion cage is carried to the 
chain sheave. 

The two hubs of the latter are prolonged to form 
bearings on each side, in the frame of the block, and 
are bored through the center to let the shaft of the 
hand-chain wheel pass through the sleeve just formed. 
This mechanism is not self-sustaining under load ; 
the sustaining of the load and its lowering being ac- 
complished by a separate mechanism. The hand- 
chain wheel is screwed on the sleeve keyed to the 
central shaft. When power is first applied to the 
hoist, the effect is to screw the hand wheel against 
a series of friction plates, w T hich in turn bear against 
a disk rotating with the central shaft, and carrying 
with it a roller check mechanism fitting into a recess 
formed in the left-hand frame of the block. So long 
as hoisting continues, the small steel rollers of the 
checking mechanism offer no resistance ; but when 
hoisting ceases and the load causes reversal of move- 
ment, these rollers mount on their inclined path and 
frictionally check the frame which carries them, pre- 
venting its further rotation. This frame in turn locks 
one set of friction disks and prevents them from turn- 
ing ; the other set of disks, being frictionally engaged 



RECOED OF SCIENTIFIC PEOGEESS. 16? 

with the first, also remain stationary, and by their 
friction prevent the hand wheel turning backward. 
Thus the load is automatically sustained, and cannot be 
run down unless power be applied to the hand chain. 
One of the most remarkable features of this block 
is that it returns in useful work 79.5 per cent, of the 
effort of the operator, while that of the best pre- 
viously done is not over 33^ per cent. As most hoist- 
ing devices depend upon their internal resistance to 
sustain the load, it is theoretically impossible for them 
to obtain a higher efficiency than 50 per cent. 

NEW GEAES AND MODES OF GEAE CUTTING. 

A new mode of gear cutting is proposed by Mr. 
Ambrose Swazey, of Cleveland, O., who read a paper 
about it at the Richmond meeting of the American 
Association of Mechanical Engineers. 

By this means, instead of all gears being made so 
that they will run into a rack, the rack is transformed 
into a cutting tool, and by it the teeth of wheels of any 
diameter are generated and cut at the same time. 
The cutting tool is composed of a series of cutters 
rigidly connected, which revolve and at the same time 
move lengthwise or endwise at right angles to the 
axis of the wheel to be cut, and at the same speed ; it 
is continuously revolving at the pitch line, the motion 
being the same as in the case of a rack engaging with 
a revolving gear. As it would be impracticable to con- 
tinue moving the whole series of cutters endwise, 
they are bisected and these segments are connected in 
series, forming two sections, which revolve upon a 
common axis, and each section is given independent 
endwise motion by a cam. While one section is cut- 



168 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

ting, it is carried endwise in the same direction and at 
the same velocity that the pitch line of the wheel is 
rotating, until disengaged from it, when the cutters, 
while continuing to rotate, are carried by the cam 
back to their original position, ready for the next 
tooth. The head carrying the cutters is automatically 
fed across the face of the wheel, and when the cutters 
have proceeded once across, the gear is completed. 

If their cutting portions are cycloids, then the whole 
set of gear wheels cut with them will be of the epicy- 
cloid or double curve system. If they have straight 
sides, then a set of involute or single curve gears w r ill 
be generated and cut. 

As by the Willis theory all gears are cut to run with 
a rack, so by this process the Sang theory is put in- 
to practice, and the rack is made to cut correctly all 
gears. 

NEW KEYING SYSTEM. 

The machinist has had produced for his benefit a 
new keying system to take the place of the old method 
of planing and shaping key beds out of the shaft, fil- 
ing keys to fit the key beds and further filing the keys 
to fit the key-way in the boss of the gear or pulley 
which is fitted to the shaft. 

The system consists in an automatic machine for 
making a suitable key bed, and in a method of making 
the keys in large quantities and at low prices, and in 
an interchangeability of keys and of beds. 

The key beds are cut by rotating tools, which 
make a recess in the shaft, of rectangular section with 
round ends. The keys are inserted in the shaft about 
three times as deep as is usually the practice ; and by 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 169 

a cam arrangement a wide range of key beds is got, us- 
ing different diameters of milling cutters to suit the 
key thickness. The machine being set for any sized 
key, the only skill required is to put the shafts into 
the chuck. On large shafts a standard slot-drilling 
machine is used. The keys are of a hard grade of 
cast steel, are much thinner than usual, and are in- 
serted very deep in the shaft. 

In carrying out the system in the works, the draw- 
ings are marked, at the place where they are to be in- 
serted, with the number to indicate the size key to be 
used. This number is stamped by the titter on the 
shafts, as is also the position of the key. The makers 
are Messrs. George Richards & Co.,*Broadhead, near 
Manchester, England. 

IMPROVED WOODEN TOOTH WHEELS. 

A wooden gear wheel intended for street railway 
motors is made by casting a core in one solid piece, and 
boring and turning it to the diameter the wheel is to 
be at the bottom of the teeth ; it is then put in a gear 
cutter and the spaces for teeth milled in its rim ; then 
wooden teeth are driven in with white lead, the wheel 
is turned to diameter in the lathe, side plates are put 
on, the wheel again put in the milling machine, the 
latter speeded high, and the wooden teeth properly cut. 
Then the wheel is taken apart and cleaned, and the 
teeth given a coat of boiled oil, after which the 
whole is again put together. The large spur wheels 
thus made are used with steel pinions. 

MONSTROUS GEAR WHEEL. 

The Walker Mfg. Co., of Cleveland, O., has pro- 
duced a monstrous spur gear with 192 teeth, 30 feet 



170 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

6§ inches pitch diameter, 30 inch face, 6 inches pitch, 27 
inches bore ; rim diameter, 110 inches ; hub weight, 15 
tons ; total weight of gear, 66| tons. The gear, with 
the steel pinion, was the only part of the massive 
pumping machinery (for South Africa) which was 
made in this country. An extra arm and segment 
were sent out with it. 

A French system of gearing has the teeth made half 
of wood and half of metal, the metal halves of the 
teeth upon one wheel bearing on the wooden halves 
of the others, and vice versa. 

FOR FACILITATING MACHINE ERECTION. 

A test indicator, brought out by the Brown & 
Sharpe Mfg. Co., is intended to be of use to those 
erecting or inspecting machinery, and permits the 
determination of the degree of inaccuracy of a plane 
surface on the top, bottom, or side of a piece of work, 
or of ascertaining the amount of end movement of a 
spindle, or the extent to which it runs out of true. 
There is a straight bar or block having T-headed 
slots throughout its length ; and to this an upright 
post or stand may be clamped at any point by a 
knurled nut. Upon this post there is a sleeve bearing 
an arm, which may be fastened at any height on the 
post, or turned around the post to bring the arm to either 
size. The arm turns in the sleeve, and may be set at any 
angle relative to the base ; or it may be inverted so that 
its point may be brought in contact with the work in a 
downward position. An index finger magnifies many 
times the movement of this point, and its movement 
may be read upon graduations at one end of the 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 171 

arm. By means of two screws, on the side of the 
spring controlling the index finger, it may be adjusted 
and brought to zero ; and there is adjustment for 
wear of the points of the pins upon which the finger 
swings. 

A gauge for use in assembling the parts of a steam 
engine consists of an adjustable head or head caliper 
having a central pinion, which drives a rack in each 
direction equally. Through the opening the aligning 
cord passes, and rotation of the pinion causes the ends 
of the caliper to adjust themselves to cylinders of any 
diameter within the capacity of the device. 

Tests made by G. W. Bissell of Ithaca, at Sibley 
College, go to show that at low rates of feed the effect 
of pressure on the coefficient of friction is practically 
nil; which would tend to prove that under such con- 
ditions lubricated rubbing surfaces follow the loss of 
solid or " immediate " friction; but at 'the rate at 
which this state of affairs begins to be apparent, the 
augmentation of the coefficient is dangerous to the 
continuance of the smooth running of the journal. It 
is unsafe to reduce the rate of feed below .003 cubic 
centimeter per square inch of projected area of jour- 
nal per minute. 

C. V. Boys has discovered that a millimeter screw 
may be cut with a one- eighth inch leading screw, by 
the following change gear wheels : 28 on mandrel, 100 
and 36 on stud, and 32 on screw. The error, with a 
perfect lathe, would be less than one in 9000. 



172 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

Copper gaskets of U section, opening outward and 
filled inside with asbestos, are now on the market in 
Germany. This arrangement protects the abestos 
from moisture. 

HYDRAULIC FORGING PRESS. 

In a hydraulic forging press made by Galloways 
the force pump and the main cylinder of the press are 
in constant communication, without any valves be- 
tween ; nor has the pump any clack valves, but it 
simply forces its cylinderful of water directly into the 
cylinder of the press, and receives the same water 
back on the return stroke ; the large ram of the press 
rising and falling in time with the strokes of the 
pump, keeping up a continuous oscillating motion ; 
the ram of course traveling a distance which is shorter 
than the stroke of the pump, in inverse proportion to 
the areas of the cylinders. The ram may be lowered 
or raised at any time by a special hydraulic connec- 
tion. 

HYDRAULIC FORGED RAILWAY WHEEL CENTERS. 

A new method of making wrought iron railway 
wheel centers is by drop-forging them from parts first 
rough shaped-, w r hich are not only die-forged but 
welded together. The parts are (1) a cylindrical 
band, which forms the rim of the wheel, (2) a tri- 
angular bent piece having a convex inner surface, the 
curved side forming part of the rim, and each straight 
side forming half a spoke, (3) hub pieces having 
radial grooves, into which the inner ends of the spokes 
are placed. These wheels are of the Vauclain type, 
and are made by the Baldwin Locomotive Works. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 173 

The set of coiled wire may be done away with by 
drawing it to a considerable distance from the die be- 
fore coiling. 

Cast iron cutting tools, which have been used for 
twenty years in the Pennsylvania Railroad shops, are 
now being introduced into others. They are superior 
to steel ones for rousrhinsr, but cannot be used for 
finishing, as they will not hold a fine edge, particu- 
larly if the work is discontinuous, as the edges of the 
teeth of a spur wheel. 



WOODWORKING MACHINERY. 

Ix few lines of mechanical performance have 
American mechanics such marked and such deserved 
pre-eminence as in the design, construction, and opera- 
tion of woodworking machinery. The vast quantity 
of constructive and ornamental timber with which 
Nature has favored us, and the necessity, in a com- 
paratively new country, of building with and work- 
ing in wood rather than in stone and metal, have 
given to the design and manufacture of woodwork- 
ing machinery an impetus which has readily enabled 
us to get and so keep the lead. 

CUTTIXG LUMBER WITHOUT SAWS. 

A new lumber-cutting machine invented by Dr. 
Bradley, of New York, is 42 feet long, 15 feet wide, 
and 8 feet high, weighing 45 tons. Its object is to save 
time and lumber. It is claimed that it will take a log 
eight feet long and cut boards from it at the rate of 



174 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

forty a minute, of any width from ^ of an inch to 
one inch in thickness, without kerf. 

The knife is three feet long and weighs 500 pounds. 
It works with a draw motion to prevent the fibers of 
wood from breaking. A roller, preceding the knife, 
compresses the wood and aids in this matter, which 
the inventors found was the most difficult of the ends 
to be attained. The knife is moved by a wooden 
connecting rod fastened to a wheel ten feet in di- 
ameter. Every revolution of this wheel makes a 
board. 

The total output of the machine, when in running 
order, is stated at 80,000 to 100,000 feet a day. 

GANG GAINER AND GROOVER. 

A horizontal gang gaining or grooving machine, 
made by the Bentel & Margedant Co., and brought 
out just before this work goes to press, is intended 
for cutting a number of grooves or gains in material 
at once. There is a long horizontal mandrel, bearing 
a number of heads, which are adjustable in their 
distance apart. The material is clamped and held 
securely on the table, which moves across the machine 
under the cutter heads. It has both power and hand 
feed. Its use is specially appropriate for making fil- 
ing cases, desks, and similar work. It takes in work 
up to eight feet two inches long and 24 inches wide. 

MOLDING MACHINES. 

An extra heavy twelve inch standard molder, 
brought out by the Egan Co., is claimed to equal in 
capacity any inside molder yet made, while possess- 
ing all the advantages of the outside molder in setting 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 175 

up. The outside bearing goes clear clown to the floor, 
and is braced by a solid projection from the base of 
the frame. It is not necessary to remove any bolts or 
outside boxes in order to raise and lower the bed. 
The side heads, with their spindles, raise and lower 
with the table, and both the inside and the outside 
spindles are adjustable both vertically and horizontally, 
while in operation, by hand wheels on the front side 
below the bed. The under head is also adjustable 
laterally. Each head has its own chip breaker. The 
bonnet is adjustable to or from the head, independent 
of the adjustable shoe, which can be brought clear 
under the knife. The bonnet saddles on a stud, and 
can be swung clear out of the way, giving free access 
to the knives. The pressure foot for the lower head 
is a cored arm, projecting from the back of the frame 
and supported at the front of the bed. The feed 
consists of four rollers, two on the bed and two above, 
all driven by gearing, and there is expansion for 
driving the lower rollers. There are two feeds on 
every machine. The upper feed spindles are hung 
on links so that the feed rollers raise up parallel, giv- 
ing the feed rollers a full bearing on the board the 
entire width of the piece. The system of weighting 
permits the feed rollers to be raised up instantly, and 
the board may then be slipped back. 

In a new nine-inch four-sided molder, brought out 
during 1891, the table, together with the side heads 
ar.d the lower head, is raised and lowered by a large 
hand wheel in front ; the lower head has both inde- 
pendent vertical and lateral adjustment, as have the 
side heads, which can also be set beveling, if desired. 



176 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

By this plan of having the side heads raised and 
lowered, raising and lowering the table does not inter- 
fere with the cut of the heads. The feed consists of 
four driven rolls, two above and two in the table, and 
all geared. The table can be dropped 16 inches. The 
upper feed rolls are hung on trunnions and raised and 
lowered parallel. The pressure on either the front or 
the back roll can be increased or diminished at the 
will of the operator. 

SANDPAPERING MACHINES. 

A triple-drum sandpapering machine is for sand- 
papering planed surfaces for furniture, pianos, etc., 
where the work is to be varnished or painted. There 
are three drums, made of steel, and on which the 
sandpaper is placed, its grade being according to 
the work to be done. The first drum carries coarse 
paper, the second a fine grade for smoothing, and the 
third a finer grade for polishing. Each of these 
drums has a lateral oscillation across the material to 
prevent the formation of lengthwise scores, which 
would be the case if the material moved straight and 
the rolls had no such endwise vibration. The feed 
rolls are eight in number, four above and four below 
the platen, and are driven by a train of expansion 
gearing. They are so placed that the material will 
pass between the upper and lower sets, and open to 
receive material eight inches thick. The lower rollers 
are placed one each side of the drum, each roller being 
in a separate bedplate, which is adjustable with the 
roller, and the roller has a separate adjustment from 
the bedplate. Each bedplate can be set to gauge 
the amount of cut to each drum, or all the bedplates 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 177 

can be set in line and the drums set to the cut desired 
above this line. The upper rollers are mounted in a 
frame over the corresponding lower rollers. The 
pressure rolls are three in number, one over each 
drum to hold the material firmly to them, and are 
separately adjustable by hand wheels in front, which 
operate worms and worm gears. The feed is gov- 
erned by a double belt tightener operated by a hand 
lever, by which it maybe instantly started or stopped. 
The drums may be removed by raising the entire 
roller and bed frame, which opens a space directly 
over them sufficiently to lift them out and over their 
bearings. This raising device is operated by a hand 
wheel by which the screws at the four corners of the 
machine are turned, the screws resting on friction 
rollers, giving very easy motion in raising to any 
height. The adjustment of the drums for the dif- 
ference in heavier or lighter cutting is done by the 
movement of three hand wheels at the end of the 
machine. 

A new sand belt machine has two pulleys on hori- 
zontal axes, bearing a sand belt across which the spoke 
or other similar article to be sanded is laid in a frame 
between a live and a dead center, the frame having a 
swinging motion to bring the spoke upon the belt 
with any desired force, and also a swiveling motion 
to present it at any desired angle with the belt. In 
addition to this, a crank permits rotating the spoke on 
the centers. 



178 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

NEW MORTISERS AND TENONERS. 

An automatic square-chisel car mortiser and 
tenoner will not only cut heavy mortises, but make 
end tenons, gain or mortise clear through a timber 
nine inches thick, and countersink for bolt heads. 
The frame consists of a casting, cored out at the cen- 
ter and bearing at one end a knee in which the square 
chisel-bar plays, and on its top, at the opposite end 
from the knee just mentioned, a table having an 
upright bracket, against which the side of the timber 
to be mortised bears. A clamp piece on this bracket 
holds the timber down. There is a dead roll in the 
table, for facilitating feeding the timber endwise 
across the machine. By a hand wheel the mortising 
bar is raised or lowered to suit any point on the width 
of the timber ; by a screw and hand wheel the mor- 
tising bar is brought up to the timber and the square 
chisel forced through; a^hand lever performing for 
the auger the same function. The cross movement 
of the bed is controlled by a friction clutch having 
steps to gauge the length of the mortise. The chisel 
mandrel is driven by a friction gearing with a quick 
return ; and there are suitable stops for gauging the 
travel of the slide ; also a regulating screw for chang- 
ing the position of the chisel to suit the work. An 
extra boring attachment is fitted to the machine for 
boring joint-bolt holes, side and general work. 

The Egan Co. has brought out a tenoning 
machine, which will make tenons on both ends of a 
stick at once. Besides this feature the new machine, 
instead of making the tenons by the cutter heads, 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 179 

rather too long, and then cutting them off to the de- 
sired length, thus leaving a bur or ridge, first cuts 
the stick to the proper length and then makes and 
finishes the tenons, leaving the latter with a smooth 
end finish. 

SAWING MACHINERY AND APPLIANCES. 

Arbey, of Paris, has greatly developed his tree- 
felling machine and his forest log cross-cutting 
machine. In the former there is a steam cylinder 
bearing upon its piston a drag saw, and having a 
swiveling motion which causes the feed. Suitable 
contrivances are given to permit the machine to be 
fastened to the trunk to be sawed. 

A double rip and cross-cut sawing machine for 
edging, ripping, and cross-cutting, particularly for 
pattern-makers, has a column in one casting, and there 
are two saws, one for cross-cutting and the other for 
ripping, borne on a frame rotating about a center 
within this column so that either can be brought 
through the throat of the table, and either one may 
be projected through any desired distance for groov- 
ing. The table is in two sections, the one to the left 
of the saw working back and forth on rollers, for edg- 
ing and cross-cutting* The machine is supplied with 
two miter fences for cutting right and left, and one 
ripping fence. A boxing prevents the saw that is 
being thrown out of place from injuring the operator 
while in transit. The table tilts at any desired angle 
to the plane of the saws, and the fences have suitable 
circular graduations for mitering and beveling. 

The Egan Co. has made a band re-sawing machine 



180 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

which will saw a 2^-inch plank into two one-inch 
boards at one cut, thus effecting considerable saving 
in lumber. 

A saw mill dog brought out by the Knight Mfg. 
Co., of Canton, O., belongs to that class in which 
an adjustable head carries the dog bit, and is secured 
at any point on a horizontal sliding bar, with a lever 
connection to force it into the timber. The upright 
is formed of two parallel straight pieces, in one of 
which the head carrying the upper dog bit slides, giv- 
ing adjustability in height ; the locking mechanism 
for this being by an eccentric and lever. The lower 
dog is inclined at an angle of about 45 degrees with 
the vertical, its lower end being turned up to about 
the same angle. It is controlled by the lever which 
operated the upper dog. The lower dog bit moves 
upward until it strikes the timber, then upward into 
it, both dogs being locked in position when first in 
the timber. To operate the upper dog, the dog bit is 
dropped on the log and is forced downward into 
the timber by drawing downward upon the long 
lever. When released from its bite in the timber, 
the lower dog returns to its original position, auto- 
matically locking itself, and remains there out of 
the way until again liberated by the operator. 

These dogs are made right and left handed. For a 
right-hand mill a right-hand dog is used on the front 
head block and a left-hand one on each rear block ; 
while for a left-hand mill a left-hand dog is used on 
a front head block and a right-hand on the rear. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 181 

LATHES. 

An automatic spoke lathe, brought out by the Egan 
Co. in 1891, combines the principal features of the 
Blanchard lathe with new ones. The bed or frame 
is wider than is usual, and the " V " is placed some 
distance back of the center line of the cutter head, 
allowing the belt to press the front of the carriage 
down to the " V " as it travels along. The construc- 
tion of the bed is such that chips are not liable to ac- 
cumulate on the top to obstruct the rollers. There is 
a sliding carriage, having four rollers with their 
journals held in position by collars on the outside ; 
the carriage has adjustable gibs to the main frame, to 
prevent side play. The standards carrying the cut- 
ter head are bolted to the carriage on planed sur- 
faces. The head has a combination of hook and 
gouge knives. The vibrating frame is cast hollow, 
and is connected at the top by hydraulic pipes, to 
give strength and lightness. There are adjustable 
trunnion boxes to change the size of the spoke. The 
gearing is cut from the solid, and the center gear has 
double width of face, to permit the operator to 
change the shape of the spoke. The back center 
gearing is so constructed that various lengths of 
spoke may be turned from one pattern. The eccentric 
center is very large, requiring no ratchet to keep the 
spoke in position while being turned. The spring 
pressure bar has three cast steel coil springs connected 
to the carriage w r ith a slide, working in planed ways, 
operated by a hand wheel and screw, so as to permit 
wide range in size of spokes that may be turned on 
it. The feed mechanism will ordinarily change the 



182 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

rate of feed at the start, although, by a slight change, 
it may be made to give the same speed all along. By 
pressing a lever the feed may be stopped in any de- 
sired position along the spoke f©r setting the rests or 
truing the knives. 

An improvement recently added is for automati- 
cally lifting into the cut the frame carrying the spoke, 
so that all the operator has to do is to remove the 
finished spoke and put in the stick for a new one, 
— not even leaving his position, but merely pulling a 
lever, which sets the vibrating frame into the cut ; 
then the carriage, with the cutter heads attached, 
travels along the bed, completing the spoke ; the 
vibrating frame throws forward, and the carriage and 
head return to the starting-point to cut another spoke. 
This is of course much more convenient than lifting 
the frame into the cut every time a spoke is turned. 

This lathe has a record made in a spoke factory in 
Mississippi of 2695 spokes per day of 10 hours, which 
is claimed to be the greatest record ever made on a 
spoke lathe. The average capacity of the new lathe 
is claimed to be 2200 to 2400 spokes per day, more 
than double the ordinary capacity of such machines. 

The latest automatic spoke-turning and squaring 
lathe, made by the Defiance Machine Works, is for 
turning all kinds of spokes up to 30 inches long 
and 4J inches in diameter. The cutter heads are 
large, and fastened to a spindle by friction grip only, 
to do away with marring the spindle by set screws. 
The knives, of which there are three to each head, 
are flat and shear cutting, their edges ground straight 
over. Hinged to the back of the frame there is a 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 183 

shield, surrounding the heads and preventing injury 
to the operator, besides discharging dust and shav- 
ings at the back of the machine. The table is of two 
parts, coupled together, at the tail center end, by a 
steel pin in one of several holes which extend through 
both tables. The lower part, which rests upon the 
frame, slides upon gibbed angle ways, and is operated 
to and from the cutter heads by a hand lever. A 
forming cam rotates against an upright shoe attached 
to the lower table, and vibrates the upper table ac- 
cording to the cam shape which governs the spoke 
section. If the pin which connects the two tables is 
opposite the tail center the tread end of the spoke 
will be round, gradually changing to oval at the 
throat, where it will agree with the cam section. If 
the pin is placed toward the right-hand end of the 
table the oblong shape at the tread end will be more 
marked. Sharp-edged spokes are turned with an at- 
tachment, or extended table, carrying the center line 
of oscillation at a sufficient distance to turn both the 
throat and the tread alike ; forming two straight 
lines on the sharp edge. The tail block has adjust- 
ments for spoke length and taper. Rived and sawed 
timber is used in this lathe and finished at one oper- 
ation. The capacity for turning and squaring is two 
hundred and fifty complete spokes per hour, ready 
for polishing. 

The new automatic spoke and handle lathe made 
by the Defiance Machine Works is for turning and 
squaring wagon and carriage spokes, although it has 
adjustments for turning common, Sarven, or sharp- 
edged shapes, making either light hickory spokes or 



184 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

heavy ones for wagon, truck, or artillery wheels, up to 
forty-four inches long and five inches diameter. 
There is a rotating horizontal cylinder composed of 
rotating knife cutter heads placed side by side to 
make up the length of the spoke ; each head having 
three cutters of three inches face, lapping over each 
other so as to form a continuous cutting edge over 
the entire length of the cylinder. There is a table 
in two parts, gibbed and sliding on the frame in an- 
gular ways, being moved to and from the cutter by 
either a hand or a foot lever. The upper part of this 
table supports the turning centers, and is pivoted to 
the lower half, near the tail center, by a steel pivot, in 
one of several holes in the table, on which it vibrates 
for oval turning. At the opposite end of the head 
center spindle is a cast iron cam of the shape that it 
is desired to turn ; this cam riding against an upright 
shoe extending up from the lower table, and held 
snug against the shoe by a coiled spring. When the 
table is moved toward the cylinder to where the 
turning is begun, an automatic feed slowly rotates 
the object to be shaped, and the cam, rotating against 
the shoe, oscillates the table in a path corresponding 
with the shape of the cam. When the pivot is placed 
directly opposite the tail center, the machine will 
turn the work round at the tail end, gradually chang- 
ing in section toward the other end, where it will 
correspond with the shape of the cam. For long, 
oval, or irregular turning, where both ends must cor- 
respond in section with the cam, the vibrating part 
of the table is locked fast with the lower part, and 
the cam rotates against a shoe fastened to the frame, 
thus vibratin£ both tables alike at each end. The 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 185 

diameter of turning is regulated by screws. The tail 
center can be adjusted at any desired distance from 
the spur center for short or long turning, or at right 
angles for straight or taper turning. The swinging 
cutter head is made to advance and retreat from the 
work automatically, its position being regulated by 
the movement of the table, the section turned being 
governed by a cam upon the live center table. It 
will turn square, octagonal, or any other section 
desired. 

CARVING AND ROUTING MACHINES. 

A geometrical carving and corner block machine, 
patented by S. Y. Kittle, seems to be a valuable ad- 
junct to an ornamental wood shop, and useful in making 
interior wood decorations for ceilings, such as corner 
pieces, center pieces, borders, etc. There is a frame 
which has a square table or box with a flaring base 
and a continuation having a gap somewhat in the 
manner of a band saw or drill press frame ; this car- 
ries the vertical router spindle, the pulley of which 
has one bearing above and one below, the belt passing 
over two idler pulleys at the back of the frame and 
down over the main pulley which is at the bottom of 
the machine, at the back ; the shaft running fore and 
aft, and hence at right angles to the router pulley 
shaft and the idler shaft. The table has vertical mo- 
tion by a rack and pinion, and horizontal adjustment, 
as well as tipping motion for certain classes of work. 
There are adjustable stops to regulate the depth of 
cut ; and the table has an index for dividing and 
regulating its circular movement. There are suitable 
clamps and jaws for centering and holding down the 



186 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESG. 

blocks, and the whole table is counterbalanced so as to 
move more readily up and down by a hand lever. 
The router shaft pulley is covered by a casing which 
protects the operator and keeps oil from being slung 
over him and the work. By this machine, work of the 
class done in metal by a rose engine or geometrical 
lathe may be effected ; and by an attachment the 
operator can cut designs on material of any length as 
in the case of long boards on mantelpieces. Another 
attachment is for routing or duplicating operations in 
line for fancy moldings, consisting of a table, with 
rack and pinion feed, that may be fed along by a hand 
wheel or by a lever and ratchet, as desired. 

PLANERS AND SURFACERS. 

In a 26-inch double surfacing machine, brought out 
by Rogers & Co., the cylinders are large and slotted, 
and run in yoke boxes. There is a bonnet chip 
breaker and a complete set of pressure bars which 
have every desirable adjustment. The lower cylin- 
der may be set for any desired cut, and the end of 
the bed will swing down to admit of easy access to 
the head for sharpening or setting the knives. The 
bed is raised 'and lowered on four screws by hand 
or by power ; and when power is used an adjust- 
ment of eight inches is accomplished in one minute. 
When set to proper thickness the lower cylinder, while 
firmly clamped to the bed, is also clamped to the 
sides of the frame. The gears on the feed rollers are 
of about double the diameter of the latter, giving 
great leverage. Each pair of feed roll boxes is con- 
nected in a yoke frame to avoid the possibility of 
cramping, and all links are hung on boxes instead of 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 187 

on roll shafts. The feed is driven direct from the 
top cylinder through two feed shafts, provided with 
cones giving four changes of speed. 

Rogers & Co. have brought out during 1891 a fast 
feed planer and matcher, to work 15 inches wide and 
six inches thick, feeding from 25 to 100 feet per 
minute. 

UNIVERSAL WOODWORKER. 

An extra large universal woodworker, brought out 
by the Egan Co., is for dressing and taking out of 
twist large timbers and planing them perfectly true 
to a right angle at one operation. The main head, 
on a 'horizontal axis, is slotted on all four sides. 
There are tables of unusual width and length, and 
having wide grooves by which to fasten the gaining 
and paneling frames exactly at right angles to the 
cutter heads. Either table may be raised and lowered 
independently of the other, or they can be raised and 
lowered together in a circular manner concentric with 
the head, or they may be raised and lowered together 
vertically. All the adjustments are made from the 
working side of the machine close to the cutter head, 
permitting the operator to make the desired adjust- 
ments without going to the end of the machine. 
The front bearing is adjustable and may be taken off 
when a change of heads is desired. The bearings of 
the mandrel are such that the boxes with the mandrel 
and head may be moved back and forth across the 
bed as desired, instead of making the adjustment by 
means of the fence. The beveling fences adjust 
across the table. One of them is placed over the 



188 RECORD OP SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

main bead and the other back of the upright head ; 
both have sliding plates and, when beveling, the lower 
part is close to the table and has no forward motion. 
The bearing attachment, on the opposite side of 
the machine from the main head, is independent of 
the latter, so that two men may work the machine at 
the same time without interference. 

A new pedestal shaper, made by Rogers, has some 
very desirable features as a variety molder. There is 
a solid pedestal frame, having each side of it a column 
or post extending from the base to the table of the 
machine. The yoke boxes are supported by six posts 
and by the pedestal, so that the spindles are perfectly 
aligned. The yokes and their spindles are raised and 
lowered by hand wheels in front, and may be dropped 
below the line of the table. 



WHEEL MAKING MACHINERY. 

In no lines of woodworking machinery has 
American ingenuity responded more effectually to 
the demands of manufacturers than in producing 
machines for practical everyday operation in making 
vehicle wheels of the excellent woods with which 
Nature has endowed us. There is scarcely a single 
operation — if indeed there be one — in the manufacture 
of wagon or carriage wheels from the rough wood, 
that is not done by machinery, most of it, too, power; 
driven and automatic ; and the products of these 
machines as far excel in their strength and finish the 
crude productions of Old World wheelwrights, as 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 189 

American hickory does the inferior woods with which 
the latter are compelled to serve themselves. 

The Defiance Machine Works have brought out a 
double automatic rim strip equalizing machine for 
cutting off the ends of rim strips preparatory to enter- 
ing the bending machine. As a number of pieces of 
this class are bent at once, it is desirable that their 
lengths should agree in order that each shall have an 
equal bearing on the heel casting attached to the 
bender strap, this greatly reducing the liability of 
breakage while bending. There is a table eight feet 
long and twelve inches wide, capable of holding a 
number of rim strips at once. Running lengthwise of 
the table there is an adjustable gauge for regulating 
the length of cut. The table slides upon ways which 
are planed true and have gibs. The saw is circular, 
16 inches in diameter, and running 2400 turns per 
minute. 

A new rim and felloe rounding machine made by 
the Defiance Machine Works is for rounding and 
finishing the inner ends of rims and felloes after they 
are bent and bored for the spokes. There is a single 
vertical columnar stand, at the top of which there is a 
rotating cutter between two guiding disks, between 
which the rim or felloe passes. The cutter heads are 
adjustable for felloes of different widths, and are sup- 
plied with eight cupped shear-cutting knives with 
semicircular edges. A stationary guide rest between 
the heads regulates the depth of cut, and a gauge pin 
upon the periphery of the rest spaces the distance 
from the spoke hole at which the rounding shall begin, 



190 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

This pin can be set to round as closely to the tenon 
hole as desired. The rim or felloe is placed between 
the guides, with the gauge pin in one of the spoke holes, 
and is then brought down upon the cutters and 
moved toward the next spoke hole, rounding one-half 
of the rim between the holes. The pin is then placed 
in the next hole, and the process repeated until one 
half of each space between the spoke holes is rounded. 
The rim is then reversed and completed by a like 
operation. The circular guides, which support the 
felloes side wise, are adjustable for different felloe 
widths and for holding centrally with the heads the 
material to be rounded. 

A rim packing and cutting off machine, made by 
the Defiance Machine Works, is used by makers of 
bent rims for wagon and carriage wheels. After the 
rims are bent they are placed in a sliding carriage 
between centering jaws and packed together to a 
uniform circle, making them all register alike, and 
then in this position the carriage is moved by the 
saw and a small surplus cut from both ends of each 
rim ; a strip is then nailed across to the ends of the 
rims, when the package is prepared for shipment. 
The traveling carriage is mounted upon three friction 
rollers, which run upon T-rails. The jaws for holding 
the rims are fitted to the carriage in planed angle 
ways; their faces are also planed true and square with 
the carriage. The two jaws standing opposite each 
other are worked at the same time by a hand wheel. 
The center jaw has an independent adjustment and 
acts simply as a gauge. The jaws open and close 
sufficiently to take in rims from 24 to 60 inches in 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 191 

diameter, and receive enough to make a stack nine 
inches high. 

A new automatic hub turning and finishing machine 
is for the purpose of turning plain, beaded, banded 
Sarven and Warren hubs complete, with unskilled 
labor. The rough hub block is placed in the machine, 
which first roughs it down to the proper size by a 
roughing knife having a straight face 12 inches long, 
and which is fastened to a stand at the back end of 
the sliding carriage, with its cutting edge extending 
downward, taking off at one cut a ribbon one-eighth 
inch thick of the full length of the hub; a gauge limit- 
ing the depth of cut. By a reverse movement of the 
hand wheel the roughing movement retreats and the 
finishing knives come into play ; the diameter to which 
they turn being regulated by screws attached to the 
carriage so that once adjusted the machine turns out 
hubs of only one finished diameter. The finishing 
knives are at the opposite side of the carriage from the 
roughing, and their cutting edges extend upward. At 
each end, upon the same stand as the finishing knives, 
are the knives for cutting band seats ; on separate 
stands, the knives for finishing the ends, these last 
being in advance of the body and band knives. A 
single set of knives will turn and finish hubs of the 
same shape to any diameter within the machine's 
capacity. The feed is by friction. 

An automatic wheel boxing machine, recently pro- 
duced, is for holding and boring a light vehicle wheel. 
There is a cylindrical plunger having a conical interior, 
and worked by a spring, which receives the point of 



192 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

the hub, and centers it truly ; the rim of the wheel 
is fastened in a true plane by resting against the arms 
of the face plate of the machine ; and two rotating 
padded disks, embracing the spokes near the hub, 
hold the wheel firmly in the desired position. The 
contour of the axle box, to which the wheel is bored, 
is filled by an automatic device. Provision is made 
for cutting both ends of the hub to any desired shape 
or size. The feed is automatic, and is stopped at the 
end of the cut by an automatic stop. The outer 
rotating binding pad, by which the wheel is held, has 
40 steel balls, five-eighths of an inch in diameter, to 
lessen friction. The inner pad is adjustable to suit 
the varying dish of wheels. The wheel turns 200 
times per minute, and the cutter 5000. 

The latest automatic spoke driving machine holds 
the hubs at each end in a pair of adjustable saddles 
having vertical adjustment for the length of spoke, 
and horizontal adjustment for length of hub. The 
hammer is supported by a power shaft driven by a 
clutch, composed of a friction disk keyed to the shaft 
and a loose friction driver, each having double fric- 
tion faces that correspond. The driver has lateral 
motion, and is connected by a foot lever for controlling 
its position with relation to the disk. A spring au- 
tomatically separates the frictions, the driver acting 
as a loose pulley when disengaged. When the oper- 
ator's foot is placed upon the pedal the frictions are 
engaged and start the hammer, which delivers a blow 
similar to that of one swung by hand. The force 
of the blow is regulated by the pressure upon the 
pedal, as is also the speed of the blows. There is an 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 193 

adjustable gauge for guiding the spoke. into exact 
position. 

A recent automatic skein setting and fitting ma- 
chine is for dressing the ends of wheel axles to 
proper shape to receive the skeins. With unskilled 
labor it dresses 200 axles per day of ten hours, and fits 
skeins from 2| to five inches, of either cast iron or 
steel. The skein and axle are put into the machine, 
and a carriage carrying a cutter is moved backward 
with an arm carrying a friction roll on the inside of 
the skein. When the friction clutch is engaged, the 
cutter bar rotates and feeds into the cut. The friction 
roll follows the exact shape of the skein and governs 
the path of the cutter, turning the end of the axle to 
an exact duplicate of any skein placed in the machine. 
When the end of the cut is reached, the friction roll 
leaves the mouth of the skein, and the cutter is lifted 
from the cut, out of the way. 

The friction roll traverses the inner circle of the 
skein to be fitted, and the cutter bar is at the oppo- 
site end of a double arm which bears this friction roll. 
A heavy spindle, through the center of the bar, con- 
nects it to a circular sleeve, rotating in heavy bearings 
mounted upon a sliding carriage, which is fitted into 
angular ways and provided with gibs, and has a hori- 
zontal adjustment by hand wheel to carry the cutter 
to and from its work. 



194 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 



TEXTILE MACHINERY, 

America is gradually increasing its lead in several 
departments of textile industry and gaining place in 
others. Her mechanics are ingenious, and her man- 
ufacturers and merchants enterprising, while her 
rapidly-increasing wealth and civilization make it 
possible for textile industries to progress at a rate 
which offers ample reward to the ingenious and wide 
awake. There are, however, no startling inventions or 
discoveries to be recorded as belonging to 1891, either 
not completed or in completion ; but all along the 
line there has been steady advancement which, it is to 
be hoped, will find a parallel during 1892. 

evening device for yarn racks. 

A new dressing rack, for giving yarns even ten- 
sion at all times in the process of running them from 
the spool, has a pedal or brake bearing upon the sur- 
face of the yarn and the spool, and held there by a 
spiral spring. As the diameter of the roll of yarn 
upon the spool gets less, the leverage is of course 
changed and the tension is kept practically even, thus 
preventing " section stripes." It is claimed for this 
device also that spools with crooked arbors will run 
as well on them as straight ones, and that the spool 
heads cannot strike or rub on the framework of the 
rack. Short and long spools may be used at will, 
there being an extension at one side to take in the long 
ends. To prevent the threads from the long spools 
interfering with each other or with those from the 
short ones, they run over a light pine roller one and a 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 195 

half inches in diameter, the friction of the yarn turn- 
ing the rolls as it passes over them, the thread 
traveling in its own place from the spool. 

BOBBIN WINDING. 

Textile manufacturers are interested in an improved 
arrangement for rendering winding machines more 
effective. In this mechanism, mounted upon the same 
axle as the bobbin cradle, is a lever to which is 
pivoted the upper end of a vertically-sliding brake 
lever, normally held in its position by a sliding rod, 
through an aperture in which pass the detector wires; 
the bobbins are normally pressed against the drum 
by a weighted cord attached to a bobbin cradle, pass- 
ing beneath a pulley on the brake lever and over a 
pulley on the frame. When a thread breaks, the 
wiper engages with the fallen detector wire, and the 
catch bar is slid horizontally, releasing a cord which 
is then forced upward by a weighted cord ; this 
causes the brake block to take against the bobbin and 
raise the same from the driving drum, the bar being at 
the same time moved farther on the left by means of 
an incline, thus moving the fallen detector wire out of 
engagement with the wiper. The parts may be 
brought back to their original position by means of a 
handle which is pivoted on a lever, and is provided 
with a fork for engaging with a pivot, pin ; and it is 
also provided with a catch for engaging with a part 
of the bobbin cradle, in order to hold the latter in the 
raised position, when it is required to find a broken 
end, etc. To have the detector wires stronger than 
usual, they are suspended from balanced levers. 



196 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

STOP MOTION FOR CARDING ENGINES. 

An ingenious kind of stop motion for carding en- 
gines is being introduced. In this arrangement the 
shaft of the upper calender roller is prolonged for a 
short distance beyond its bearing, and a worm affixed 
to the end gears into a worm wheel mounted on a stud 
attached to a bracket on the framing; the wheel also 
having affixed to its face a pin which engages with a 
lever, the latter in turn acting upon one end of 
another lever. The other end of this last-named 
lever is bent in such a manner as to pass under a 
catch pivoted to one side of the doffer lever, the latter 
being supported in working position by the catch. 
On being passed through the calender rolls at the 
proper thickness, the worm on the upper calender 
shaft is held out of contact with the worm wheel: on 
the other hand, when it becomes too thin or is entirely 
absent, the worm falls into^gear and rotates the worm 
wheel, thus moving the levers about their centers, re- 
leasing the catch attached to the doffer lever, and 
stopping the engine. 

John Bromley & Sons, of Philadelphia, have under- 
taken to manufacture lace curtains in this country, at 
the rate of 5000 pairs per week. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 197 



THE TRANSMISSION OF POWER. 

Each year man seems more and more averse to 
doing anything by hand power that can possibly be 
done by employing the forces of Nature. This re- 
luctance to physical exertion, while a reversion to the 
time of the savage, brings with it in its train a degree 
of ease to both sexes, and an immunity from danger 
and disease, of which the savage, not in love with 
muscular exertion, knew nothing. In these days of 
engineering skill, if the mountain will not go to Ma- 
homet, the latter, instead of going to the mountain, 
sees that the mountain (or so much thereof as he 
wishes) comes to him. If there be a waterfall, the 
power of which the modern Mahomet thinks would 
be serviceable to him, to grind his corn, or to elevate 
Mahomet himself to the upper stories of his residence, 
the ingenious compeller of Nature's forces gives 
orders that the power be saddled, bridled, and driven 
to his door. It may be by wire, or manilla ropes, or 
by compressed air; by water under pressure, or by the 
mysterious electric current, that the power is brought 
from one place to another ; the conditions determine 
which will be the most valuable; but the power must 
be brought to where it is available for use, instead of 
the place of application being planted at the side of 
the power. 

One of the most noteworthy advances in the trans- 
mission of power for short distances, is that by ordi- 
nary cotton and manilla ropes, the system lending 
itself particularly well to installments where the direc- 
tion of transmission is tortuous, or in very suddenly 



198 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

varied directions ; but this, being now a very fairly- 
established practice, can receive no more than mere 
mention at the hands of a chronicler of the doings of 
1891. 

The most important project for the transmission of 
power for any great distance is that for carrying 
125,000 horse power from Niagara Falls to power- 
users in the district within from ten to fifty miles of 
that source of power. This will be found treated 
under the head of Hydraulic Engineering, because the 
skill, time, and capital required are called for more 
by the development of the power than by its trans- 
mission — the latter being merely an extension of 
principles and constructions now familiar. 

Birmingham, England, has a high pressure hy- 
draulic plant for supplying the elevators, etc., in the 
city with water under pressure. At present there are 
but eighty hydraulic elevators in the city. The 
water is to be delivered at 430 pounds pressure into 
two six-inch hydraulic mains, which are connected by 
two accumulators of cast iron, with cast iron rams 
18 inches in diameter, loaded with 84 gross tons. 
The saving in water is estimated at the difference be- 
tween 7000 and 70,000 gallons per year, and the cost 
of running a " lift " will be reduced from £25 per 
year to £9. 

Compressed air is furnished power-users and others, 
in Paris, from a station started in 1889, and now sup- 
plemented by one on the Quai de la Gare, laid out for 
generating 24,000 horse power, of which 8000 horse 
power is expected to be used in 1891, and 18,000 in 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 190 

1892. The coal consumption is kept down to 1.54 
pounds per horse power per hour, by a penalty of 
2000 francs for every hundred grams in excess of 
this limit. The air is compressed to 30 pounds per 
square inch, then passing Into a receiver it is cooled ; 
then it is let into a final compressing cylinder, and 
raised to the pressure at which it passes into the 
mains, 90 pounds per square inch. The actual engine 
duty per horse power per hour is 384 cubic feet of air 
at atmospheric pressure. The compressed air valves 
are seven inches in diameter, and are brought back 
sharply to their seats, at each stroke, by a small pis- 
ton operated by compressed air flowing through a by- 
pass from the chamber. The mains are 19.69 inches 
in diameter, made of riveted steel plates. The veloc- 
ity of the air has been brought up to 49 feet per sec- 
ond ; but the actual speed used everyday is about 19 
feet eight inches per second. This gives a loss of 
0.07 atmosphere per kilometer. 

Luzerne, Switzerland, is to have pneumatic trans- 
mission of power from waterfalls, and Offenbach is to 
have a similar distribution. The pipes are 7760 yards 
long, and from twelve inches down to four in diameter. 
The power is 500 horse, and the loss in transmission 
13 per cent. 

As within the city of Dresden the erection of steam 
boilers is prohibited, compressed air is proposed for 
power distribution there. 

It has been figured out that of 5000 horse power 
generated at Niagara 3000 could be used at Chicago. 



200 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 



INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY. 

The skill of the chemist is called for in almost 
every walk of life in which progress is desired to be 
made, or in which it is feared that there is danger of 
being left behind. Materials that have been con- 
sidered valueless, except for almost unprofitable 
purposes, have been shown by him to be well worth 
working by improved processes ; and others which 
have been looked upon as so much more weighty 
matter, good perhaps only for ballast in case they 
were hard and heavy, have yielded to the magic per- 
suasion of his art, and become articles of commerce 
and sources of contention by those who wish to con- 
trol their output or utilization. 

CONTINUOUS ACTION RETORTS. 

The Mechanical Retorts Company, Limited, of 
Paisley, Scotland, has produced a retort with con- 
tinuous feed and discharge. In this the charge is 
kept as free as possible from contact with the shell, 
and is spread out to receive the heat radiated down 
upon it from every side. The gases liberated are 
forced to travel in a certain direction, Avhich keeps 
them as much as possible from the shell, while 
traversing the interstices of the material. The prod- 
ucts are generated at the upper surface of the 
charge. 

The retort consists of a vertical cylinder about 
eight feet in diameter at the bottom, increasing by 
three-inch intervals until it is nine feet wide and 
seven feet high. Both top and bottom are closed by 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 201 

disks, each having a large hole at the center. Pro- 
jecting upward from the top disk, and downward from 
the bottom one, are sleeves which pass through the 
flues and brickwork to the open air, and which are 
fitted at their extreme ends with stuffing glands, in 
which turns the center shaft, driven from below by 
gearing. The sleeves are much larger than is neces- 
sary for the shaft. Through the upper one the 
material to be distilled is charged, the products being 
removed by the lower one. The center shaft is 
stepped, but diminishes in diameter toward the upper 
end. The steps on them are at different intervals 
from those on the shell, so that the disks which 
rest on them do not rest on the shell, and vice 
versa. The disks on the shaft are smaller by 
about a foot than the shell diameter, and those 
on the shell have a large hole in their center, 
leaving a narrower passage around the shaft. 
From the under side of each plate are hung scrapers 
or duplicators, acting like plows ; all of them scrape 
the material outward on the shaft disks, inward on 
the shell disks. Thus the material is gradually 
worked down to the bottom, by an intermittent 
motion. The heat is applied by a gas producer, or 
by a furnace, and is applied at the top of the retort ; 
then by a zigzag course on each side of the retort to 
the bottom. The cold material is introduced where 
the fire is the hottest. 

With 2f cwt. of coal per ton of wood, the retort 
puts through 12 tons of birch shavings per 24 hours. 



202 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

REDUCTION OF REFRACTORY ORES. 

In Shedlock's apparatus for the treatment of re- 
fractory ores the stone is crushed in the usual way, 
and subjected to the action of gases under pressure, 
whereby the whole of the sulphur, and other materials 
which render the ore refractory, are separated. The 
ore is then conveyed into a vessel containing an 
absorbing fluid metal, so constructed that every part 
of the ore is brought into contact with the metal. 
For the production of reducing gases, steam and 
air are passed through highly heated materials 
having an affinity for oxygen, and the gases so pro- 
duced are utilized for raising the ore to a high 
temperature. The tailings passing off are said to be 
worthless. 

A process of coating iron with lead or zinc has been 
shown in Millwall, London. The iron articles are 
first pickled in acid, then dipped in lime, then in clear 
water ; then dipped in a liquid bath of zinc and tin in 
equal parts, in hydrochloric acid ; then through a bath 
of molten lead. 

NEW INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES. 

The commercial manufacture of ozone has been 
undertaken by a company in the city of New York, 
by the Siemens process. 

A recent improvement in the manufacture of chlo- 
rine gas and caustic soda, by electricity, uses a vessel of 
iron or of carbon, which, in the latter case, is jacketed 
with copper, and forms the cathode. The anode is a 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 203 

porous diaphragm consisting of a number of Y-shaped 
porcelain troughs, built up inside of each other ; the 
spaces between them being packed with asbestos, or 
with powdered soapstone. The raw material is brine, 
which is supplied from separate tanks to the anode, 
and, following along the series through the cells, is 
eventually returned to the tanks. The chlorine 
escapes from the electrolyzing vessel through an 
outlet'pipe in a porcelain cover. 

The manufacture of iron sulphate in quantity, and 
cheaply, renders its use valuable in the purification 
of water on a large scale. P. & A. Buisine have 
obtained it from the residuary burnt pyrites from 
chemical works, by mixing with sulphuric acid and 
stirring while at a temperature of 100° to 150 v C; then 
adding water to get a strong solution ; then adding 
more acid, and so on until the pyrites are entirely 
decomposed. The water purified by it is clear, color- 
less, odorless, neutral, or very slightly acid ; while 
that done by lime is alkaline, colored, smells, and re- 
tains organic matter in solution. Furthermore, by 
treatment w r ith carbon bisulphide, the grease con- 
tained in the water may be recovered from the pre- 
cipitate. 

A new white lead process by Maclvor, is some- 
thing the same in principle as the ammonia-soda pro- 
cess. A solution of ammonium acetate is allowed to 
react on litharge, with the production of a basic lead 
acetate. The liquid or semi-liquid mass of white color 
thus produced is agitated, and carbonic acid gas passed 
through it in the cold, forming basic lead carbonate, or 



204 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

white lead, and reproducing ammonium acetate, which 
is used over again to dissolve a second charge of lead 
oxide. 

A new method of refining camphor is now practiced 
in Japan, the machinery having been made at Pitts- 
burgh under the Symes patent, and having a capacity 
of 50,000 to 75,000 pounds of refined camphor per 
month. 

ARTIFICIAL COLD. 

The cryogene is an apparatus designed by Cail- 
letet for producing a temperature of from 90° to 110° 
below zero F., by the expansion of liquid carbonic 
acid. There are two concentric vessels with a small 
annular space between them ; a spiral coil is placed 
inside the inner vessel and put in connection with a 
closed vessel containing liquefied carbonic acid gas. 
At its lower end the coil is connected with the 
annular space, and at its upper a stop cock is fitted. 
The inner vessel being filled with alcohol, the stop 
cock on the carbonic acid vessel fully opened, and 
the stop cock on the spiral partly opened the liquid 
passes slowly into the coil and takes the form 
of snow. From the coil it passes into the annular 
chamber, in which are pieces of sponge soaked in alco- 
hol, which arrest all acid that has not become gaseous, 
while the gas itself passes out of the apparatus through 
a bent tube. With 5^ pints of alcohol in the inner 
vessel and 4|- to 5^ pints of carbonic acid, a tem- 
perature of minus 95° F. may be obtained in a few 
minutes. 

At a dinner given in New York by E. R. Bell to 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 205 

Rev. Dr. Morgan Dix and others, there was eaten a 
turkey killed ten years ago and which had been kept 
frozen ever since in the possession of Mr. Bell. It 
was found perfect in shape and without taint of any 
sort, but its meat was devoid of taste. The fat and 
juice had entirely disappeared, leaving only bones 
and muscular fiber. 

The Colorado Automatic Refrigerating Co., of 
Denver, seems to have made a success of the busi- 
ness of supplying cold by street mains. The street 
pipe consists of three lines of extra strong ammonia 
pipe, laid in cement, and with special steel fittings. 
One pipe is called the liquid line, for carrying anhy- 
drous ammonia under pressure, and is 1^ inches in 
diameter ; another, two to three inches in diameter, 
is the vapor line, for carrying back the expanded 
gas after it has performed refrigeration ; the third, 
the vacuum main, about one inch in diameter, is used 
to remove any accumulation of gases from the main 
or branch pipes. As there is a pressure upon the gas 
in the pipes in transit, there is no loss of refrigeratory 
power in transit. The pressure is about 150 pounds. 
It is said that one pound of the ammonia has the same 
cooling power as three of ice ; and the refrigeration 
has the advantage of being absolutely dry. The 
temperature of a large commission house butter store 
room- is held at 42° F. by contract ; and the meat room 
of a market at, 36° *F. 

An inventor in Buffalo, N. Y., nas devised a process 
for making ice by utilizing the intense cold created by 
the expansion of natural gas when liberated from the 



206 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

high pressure at which it issues from the wells. In 
the experimental plant the gas is used at its initial 
pressure of from 150 to 200 pounds to drive a small 
engine. After use in the engine the gas exhausts into a 
closed box, and the expansion generates sufficient cold 
to form slabs of ice three inches thick to the amount of 
three-quarters of a ton in a day. 

ARTIFICIAL PRODUCTS. 

A new substitute for butter, " Le Dansk," has for 
its basis the fat from freshly-slaughtered cattle, which 
is first converted into oleomargarine and then into the 
new product. The fat is cut small, melted at 50° C, 
turned into water-jacketed tanks, where it is kept 2| 
hours at the same temperature, then drawn off into 
shallow vessels where it stays 36 hours at 32° C, 
becoming crystalline. The oleo is then pressed out, 
placed in jars with certain proportions of new milk, 
oil, and pure butter, and churned for fifty minutes. 
The contents of the jars are then removed, cooled, 
salted, worked, and packed. 

Fremy & VerneuiPs experiments cm the artificial 
production of rubies on a large scale seem to have 
been successful. The crystals obtained have been 
employed as pivots in watches. The process consists 
in heating alumina and a trace of potassium bichro- 
mate, with barium fluoride, or a mixture of fluorides 
of the alkaline earths, to a high temperature for 
several days. The addition of a small quantity of 
potassium bicarbonate aids the formation of the 
crystals. By employing crucibles of several liters 
capacity, in gas furnaces, as much as six and a 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 207 

half pounds of rubies are obtained in a single opera- 
tion. 

Artificial ivory has been produced by the use of 
tribasic phosphate of lime, calcium carbonate, mag- 
nesia, alumina, gelatine, and albumen — the same 
materials as exist in the natural substance. 

A French manufacturer has discovered a substi- 
tute for celluloid, which he has, named hyaline, that 
possesses the very great advantage of being non-in- 
flammable. It is composed of colophone, lac, copal, 
Dammara resin, essential oil of turpentine, and gun 
cotton, and is described as grainless, odorless, trans- 
parent, and tenacious. 

It is said that an improvement nas oeen made in the 
manufacture of glass for optical instruments, by the 
addition of phosphorus and chlorine to the ordinary 
materials ; permitting a much greater degree of polish, 
so that microscopes can be made to render visible 
objects only -8,o"ooyoo o" °f a millimeter in diameter ; 
the present smallest limit being xg-,Vo~o °^ a niillimeter. 
This seems too good «to be true. 

A substitute for glass offered by Eckstein, of 
Vienna, is made by dissolving from four to eight parts 
of collodion wool in 100 by weight of ether, alcohol 
or acetic ether, and combined with two to four per 
cent, of castor oil or other non-resinous oil and four 
to ten per cent, of Canada balsam or other soft resin. 
The compound, when poured on a glass plate and dried 
by air at 50° C, solidifies into a glass-like sheet or 
plate, which will resist the action of salts and alkalies 



208 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

and of diluted acids ; is transparent, odorless, pliable 
or flexible, and highly infrangible ; while its inflam- 
mability is less than that of the collodion substitutes. 
The addition of magnesium chloride or of grape sugar 
reduces the inflammability, and the addition of zinc 
white or heavy spar makes it look like ivory and 
adapts it for use in making collars, cuffs, etc. 

FILTERING AND PURIFICATION OF WATER. 

Filtering on a large scale is now being done by one 
type known as " Torrent " filters, consisting of tanks 
about six feet square filled with filtering material 
through which the water to be purified is forced. 
When the filtering material is choked with impuri- 
ties, a current of air is blown through from the bot- 
tom, and the dirt, having become thoroughly sepa- 
rated from the medium, runs away to a drain. 

In a new circulating filter invented by Norris, of 
London, the water is caused to circulate up and down 
through the filtering material by a series of interco- 
lated vessels, which, without the complication of any 
kind of a joint, act as partitions and compel the water 
to take a circuitous path instead of the shortest. 
The carbon is contained in an inner vessel, which may 
be lifted out for inspection or cleaning, and this 
inner vessel has, in its center, a tube or well rising up 
and also descending through the bottom ; having at its 
closed end a number of fine perforations. This tube 
is filled with loose coarse carbon, and over and around 
it is a second or air vessel, much larger, and having a 
flat top from which an air tube rises. This air vessel 
being in position, is filled by its air tube with fine 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 209 

carbon to its flat top. The rest of the fine carbon is 
poured around the air vessel into the space between 
it and the inner vessel, a flat plate is dropped on the 
top of the carbon to break the force of the water, and 
the filter is ready for use. 

A recent French method of softening water for 
industrial purposes consists in employing hydrated 
oxide of lead, which precipitates the carbonates, sul- 
phates, and chlorides. It being necessary to obtain 
the hydrated oxide of lead cheaply, this is accom- 
plished by placing a solution of sodium nitrate in a 
vat, divided into two compartments by a diaphragm ; 
lead electrodes of large surface are placed in the solu- 
tion, and a current from a dynamo then passed 
through ; the sodium nitrate is decomposed, caustic 
soda being formed in the negative compartment, and 
nitric acid at the positive pole, from which it dis- 
solves a certain quantity of lead, forming lead nitrate. 
When the current has passed through the liquid for 
a certain time, the solutions are run from the two 
compartments into a second vat and there mixed by 
means of an agitator ; the soda precipitates hydrated 
oxide of lead and itself forms sodium nitrate; the so- 
lution being then filtered, and the nitrate solution 
again submitted to electrolysis. On the lead oxide 
becoming used up, it is replaced by freshly prepared 
oxide. 

BREWING. 

A new brewing product, corn beer, or beer made 
from maize, is being made and consumed in quanti- 
ties in France. It is made without admixture of bar- 
ley malt. 



210 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

An invention by F. Hofmeister, of Munich, Ger- 
many, consists in accelerating the rate of fermenta- 
tion in liquids by spreading the ferment over a large 
surface immersed in it. Strips of material are coated 
with old must, beer, etc. ; the tun is closed, and a 
current of air drawn through it for 36 hours. Then 
the must is run into the tun. 

TANNING. 

A new tanning material, Canaigre, is the raw stalk 
of a polygonaceous plant growing in Texas and New 
Mexico. It is said to tan as quickly as Japonica, and 
give the stuff a fine pure orange color, differing from 
the color given by any other tanning material ; 
leaving the leather plump, without swelling, and the 
grain soft. Its price is $90 per ton, and one ton 
takes the place of four of oak bark, or four and one- 
half of pine bark, in tanning upper leather. Its cul- 
tivation is like that of the potato. 

A much sought desideratum, namely, a really prac- 
ticable method of waterproofing leather and raw 
hides, is claimed to have been practiced by an Aus- 
tro-Hungarian chemist, with much success ; his 
method being to impregnate the material with a gel- 
atine solution, combined with some mineral salt to 
coagulate the gelatine in the pores. An effective 
mixture for producing the desired result is found to 
be the following : Twelve hundred parts water, fif- 
teen parts gelatine, and five parts potash bichromate; 
or fifteen hundred parts water, fifty parts gelatine, 
and thirty parts potash bichromate. The tempera- 
ture of the solution may vary from 50° F. to the 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 211 

boiling point. When the bichromate percentage is 
small the liquor is mixed cold, and the leather or hide 
is immersed for a period of some twenty-four hours. 
As the proportion approaches the point of saturation 
the temperature must approximate more nearly to 
boiling and the time of immersion be re-reduced until 
it becomes momentary. 

ALCOHOL MAKING. 

Springer's method of producing alcohol has an up- 
per vat in which is placed a ground farinaceous 
material steeped in three times its weight of water, 
over an ordinary cooking tub or suitable material to 
resist nitric acid, having closed steam coils and noz- 
zles for the discharge of steam into the contained 
mass. Into this vat for each one hundred parts of 
the grain one part of commercial nitric acid with fifty 
of water is placed and brought to ebullition and agi- 
tation by the steam coils and the nozzles ; the gain 
by condensation of steam making up for the loss by 
evaporation. This condition is maintained for six to 
eight hours, after which the mass stands one day to 
complete saccharification. Then the nitric acid is 
partially or wholly neutralized by potassium or am- 
monium carbonate — preferably neutralizing only half 
of it so as to give the mass an acid reaction to keep 
the peptonite in solution and to aid in the propaga- 
tion of veast cells. Yeast is now added, and the 
remaining processes are like those employed in dis- 
tilleries, except that, just before distillation, potassium 
carbonate is added to neutralize the rest of the nitric 
acid. 



212 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

SUGAR MANUFACTURE. 

It is said that the cost of producing sorghum sugar 
has been greatly reduced by a process which is the 
same, until the semi-syrup is ready for the strike pan, 
as in the ordinary sorghum mill. Then the juice is 
drawn into large tanks and mixed with an equal 
volume of alcohol ; a current of air is blown through 
it from the bottom, and the mixture is allowed to 
stand 12 hours. The alcohol combines with the im- 
purities, and the gummy mass settles. The clear mix- 
ture is drawn off, the alcohol recovered, and the 
residue is filtered under pressure. The loss of alco- 
hol is less than one per cent. By this process it is 
said that actual sugar, to the amount of from 148 to 
160 pounds per ton of cane, has been produced. 

By a new system of washing sugar with alcohol 
(Cordero's) the alcohol is used over and over again 
without being withdrawn from the apparatus ; being 
distilled and condensed in one part of the apparatus 
while sugar is being washed in another. 

An effort is now being made to manufacture sugar 
in easily sawed or broken tablets, in order to save 
waste. 

EXPLOSIVES.* 

Ammonite, a new explosive, consists of pure am- 
monia nitrate and nitro-naphthaline, dry, ground and 
mixed in heated edge runner mills. It must be kept 
free from moisture. Its consistence is about that of 

* Other new explosives are described under the headings 
" Military " and " Ordnance and Firearms." 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 213 

ordinary artists' oil colors. It can be fired only by a 
mercury detonator, in which case explosion will be 
carried from one tube to another, unless there is 
about an inch interval between them. 

Smokeless powder is to be made in large quantities 
in the United States by the Duponts. 

Peat is recommended as a packing material, particu- 
larly for breakable packages containing liquids ; also 
for preserving perishable articles, as meat packed in 
it will keep fresh for weeks and will eventually dry 
up instead of rotting. Fresh seafish packed in it have 
been sent from Trieste to Copenhagen. It will also 
preserve fresh fruit. It will also enable artificial 
manure to be used in wet weather. 

•. 

Mond & Quincke have discovered that nickel com- 
bines with carbon monoxide to form a nickel carbon 
oxide, which will probably be of use in nickel-plating. 
They say that nickel is the only metal that will so 
combine. 

Ammonia water as a fire extinguisher received a 
good test at Queensberry, near Hawarden, England, 
where a still containing ten tons of anthracene oil 
exploded and set fire to hundreds of tons of pitch. 
The use of ammonia water from a 50,000-ton tank 
enabled the flames to be subdued in 1£ hours. 

The monosulphide of potassium and of sodium has 
been shown by Dubois to be a very valuable insecti- 
cide ; particularly adapted for Algerian crops, which 
require potash. 



214 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

H. Grimshaw states that the tannin contained in 
tea may be absorbed by suitable animal substances, 
such as dried albumen, etc., best added to the tea in 
the dry condition before infusing. It may vary from 
one to two parts, to ten parts of tea. 

Cotton seed oil may be made to absorb melted lead 
in the proportion of 10 pounds of lead to a gallon of oil, 
by repeated pourings, the resulting substance being 
an excellent paint. 

Asbestos is now used in connection with India 
rubber, being woven into sheets which are coated on 
each side with the gum and are used for gaskets, etc. 
Asbestos and India rubber woven washers are also 
made, and asbestos and India rubber woven tape for 
making steam and water joints. 

A test paper for acids, which is much more sensi- 
tive than litmus, is made with a tincture of curcuma, 
in the proportion of one of curcuma, seven of alcohol, 
and one of water, passed after drying through a bath 
of 40 drops of liquor potassse and 100 c. c. of water. 
It keeps well in tin foil. It will detect an acid in a 
mixture of one part of hydrochloric acid to 150,000 
parts of distilled water ; and will detect carbonic acid 
in spring water. 

Mond & Quincke have succeeded in volatilizing 
iron in a current of carbonic oxide at ordinary tem- 
peratures ; the deposit from its volatilization giving 
all the characteristic iron reactions. 

Cassella & Co. have introduced three new shades 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 215 

of diamine blue, which are not turned red by alkalies 
or by hot pressing ; being unique in this particular 
among dark blue dyes. There is also a new fast 
neutral violet specially adapted for cotton printing. 
This may be used in the usual way with tannin and 
tarter emetic mordant, and does not develop a bronzy 
tinge. 

One of the discoveries of the year is that of artifi- 
cial quinine, by Grimaux & Arnaud, by treating the 
base cuprein contained in the Remijia 2^edwiculata, of 
Brazil, with sodium, and then with methyl chloride. 

Tollens has discovered a new class of sugars, having 
only five atoms of carbon instead of six ; they are 
known as pentaglucoses. 



PHOTOGRAPHY. 

The magic chemistry of the sunbeam, in connection 
with the no less magic optical plates of the skilled 
lens-maker, and the results of the researches of the 
chemist-photographer, have led to some very remark- 
able attainments in the line of light-picturing ; some 
of them bidding fair to realize even the wildest dreams 
of the most enthusiastic photographer of 20 or even 
ten years ago. 

Photography in natural colors is proposed by 
Lippmann in a communication to the Academie des 
Sciences. His method is simply to employ the or- 
dinary reagents. The sensitive film during exposure 



216 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

is floated on the surface of mercury. If a blue ray 
strikes the sensitive film, it Avill pass through, and 
be reflected again through the film, interfering with 
the incident ray. When the two rays are in the 
same phase, their phase will be additive, and the 
sensitive matter be strongly acted upon. At a small 
distance further on they will neutralize each other, 
and the film will not be acted upon. Thus the 
thickness of the film will be divided into layers on 
which the light has acted, one-half wave length 
apart, and when fixed and tried it will be, practi- 
cally, a number of thin plates, having a wave length 
of blue light in thickness, and will give rise to a blue 
color when seen by reflected light. The colors ob- 
tained are said to be remarkably brilliant. 

The Ives process of color photography (also known 
as composite heliochromy) consists in first making 
three photographs to represent the effect of the ob- 
ject photographed upon the three fundamental color 
sensations (in accordance with the theory of color- 
vision now accepted by all scientists), and then com- 
bining these photographs by superposition, either by 
projection with a triple magic lantern, or in trans- 
parent gelatine prints. 

Three negatives are made from the same point of 
view, and by simultaneous and equal exposure on a 
single sensitive plate (an ordinary commercial or- 
thochromatic dry plate), the operation involving 
no more trouble or expense than the production 
of an ordinary negative. One of these negatives is 
made by means of the red light rays, one by the 
blue, and one by the green. From these negatives 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 217 

are made positives, which are projected upon a screen, 
the three images being exactly superimposed. The 
light passing through each of these positives is col- 
ored by suitably tinted glasses, corresponding to the 
light rays employed in securing the negatives. These 
colors are automatically separated and combined, by 
the action of the transparent positives, so that the re- 
sulting image on the screen appears in the colors of 
the original. If it be objected that this picture is_but 
a transitory and unfixed lantern view, Mr. Ives an- 
swers it by producing, by an ingenious modification 
of his process, permanent transparent positives show- 
ing the same wonderful color effects. 

When the most delicate colors in the sky and foli- 
age of a landscape, whether the striking contrasts of 
the Yellowstone, or the soft beauties of forest and 
meadow, the brilliant and varied colors shown by the 
polariscope, or the intricate combinations of color in 
a painting, can be reproduced with such marvelous 
accuracy as Mr. Ives has done, entirely by an autom- 
atic and photographic process, it may be said that 
photography in the colors of nature has been accom- 
plished. 

The lantern positives are made in the usual way, 
and projected with a single source of light, in an or- 
dinary magic lantern, by simply replacing the ordi- 
nary projecting lens with a special front, so that the 
color photographs can be interspersed among ordinary 
lantern pictures without causing any delays. Con- 
cerning this process, Prof. F. Stolze, Editor of JPho- 
tographische JVachrichten, of Berlin, says : " It can- 
not be denied that Ives has made a complete success 
in the solution of the problem, at least for lantern 



218 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

slides ; and here we can positively state that, theoret- 
ically, the process is accurate." 

Mr. Henry Sturmey, Editor of Photography, Lon- 
don, says : "Mr. Ives, we believe, has got nearer to 
photography in colors than any other man breathing, 
though his system is a distinct departure from the 
recognized methods of photography, and the result is 
not directly a photographic one." 

It is interesting to note that before the publication 
of the Philadelphia edition of the Encyclopaedia 
Britannica, in which it is gravely stated that photog- 
raphy in colors was far from being an accomplished 
fact, and in which it was insinuated that its exploiters 
were endeavoring, by their claims, to forward certain 
stock transactions, Ives had shown his photographs in 
natural colors at the Franklin Institute, but a few 
hundred feet from the office of publication of the work 
in question ; and not only that, but had given in the 
Academy of Music, in that city, a public lecture on 
the Yosemite and the Canons of the Great West, 
illustrated by numerous photographs in natural colors, 
taken by himself and an assistant on a recent tour. 
It is thus the impossible which ever happens. 

Photographing in aniline colors is effected by dye- 
ing or coating the surface on which it is required to 
photograph, with a peculiar compound, which is then 
converted into a photo- sensitive derivative, and ex- 
posed to the light as is usual in photography ; then 
converting the sensitive compound, wherever it sur- 
vives (through having been protected by the shadows 
of the object photographed), into coloring matters ; 
then developing the picture from a weakly-colored 



Hecord of scientific progress. 219 

sensitive compound into well-marked shades of brown 
or other colors. 

Henry Sutton, of Ballarat, Victoria, has devised a 
system of telephotography, to which he gives the 
name of telephany. 

E. J. Marcy has studied locomotion in water, by 
photography, in the manner employed by Muybridge 
with land animals. 

The chronophotograph has been applied by Demeny 
in the examination of the movements of the lips in 
speaking, the result being to show that the form of 
the mouth is quite different for the different articulate 
sounds. With these photographs combined in a 
zootrope he has reproduced the movements of the 
lips by synthesis. The ordinary person finds it diffi- 
cult to read the w r ords by the inanimate pictures, but 
a deaf mute, who has been accustomed to read from 
the lips of the speaker, can do the same from 
the photographs. By these means a magic lantern 
exhibition might be given to an audience of deaf 
mutes. 

Friese Greene, of England, has produced a very 
ingenious machine in which a thin strip of gelatine 
film runs continuously over two rollers, being wound 
on one as it is delivered from the other ; but it is 
stationary at the moment when photographs are made 
upon it. When the film is placed in a magic lantern 
and mechanism arranged to allow each successive 
picture to appear for an instant on the screen and to 
cut off the intervals of change, the continuity of vision 



220 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

blends the successive different pictures into one 
gradually changing view. This apparatus has been 
shown to several photographic societies in England. 
Such machines will do for sunlit scenes but not for 
stage representations, because of the impossibility of 
getting from 45 to 50 views per second with artificial 
light. 

Edison has devised a similar apparatus which he 
calls the kinetograph. 

Photographic cameras of the so-called detective 
type are now concealed in neckties, and give pictures 
about 1|- inches square, sufficiently sharp for portraits 
to be recognized. 

Mr. Alexander Watt has devised an apparatus for 
developing photographs without a dark room. It con- 
sists of a metal case, only slightly larger than the 
plate, and which can be closed light-tight by a lid. 
It has two tubes ; one, entering at the bottom of the 
bath, and which can be connected by a piece of India 
rubber tubing to a funnel, the other near the top, 
just above the level of the plate. The former admits 
the developer to the bath, and the latter allows the 
air to escape, and serves also as an overflow. The 
dark slide containing the exposed plate and the bath 
is placed in a changing bag, into which it is necessary 
to insert only the hands ; the plate is transferred from 
the slide to the bath, then the bath is withdrawn 
from the bag into daylight, and hung up vertically, 
and then filled with tie developing solution. The 
plate is washed by running water through the bath. 

It has been found that by adding oxalic acid to the 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 221 

ordinary blue-print mixture, the time of exposure is 
materially lessened. 

The phosphogramis alight picture made on a plate 
coated with phosphorescent calcium sulphide, exposed 
in a camera to the image of a brightly-lighted colored 
object. The result is a phosphorescent negative, which 
may be photographed by applying to it a sensitive 
film, the negative when developed showing color. 

The Kew Observatory has undertaken the testing 
of photographic lenses and furnishing certificates with 
them, as with watches, telescopes, etc. 



GENERAL PHYSICS. 

Under the head of General Physics may be in- 
cluded, for the purposes of this work, Optics, Ther- 
mometries, and other branches of Phvsics not 
embraced under the special headings of Electricity, 
etc., which the reader is advised to consult. 

A NEW POLARIZER. 

In a new polarizer, the result of the Iceland spar 
scarcity, the ray is totally reflected from the back of 
a prism of rhomboid section falling upon a black 
glass with a single sheet of very thin glass over it. 
The ray is now parallel to the incident ray. A 
second prism is added to make the reflected ray cor- 
respond with the incident ray, the arrangement 
resembling the old apparatus for " seeing through a 
brick." The second prism can be rotated. The one 



222 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

glass sheet absorbs less light than a series of plates, 
yet the combination is not so bright as a Nicol prism. 

PROPOSED THERMOMETRY SCALE. 

Salomon proposes a new thermometric scale having 
a relation to absolute zero. It starts at minus 273 
degrees C. ; from this to the freezing point of water it 
is divided into 100 parts, and so on up ; making the 
boiling point of water 136.6 degrees. It would 
form the solution of a difficulty found in gas an- 
alysis. 

NEW AREOPICNOMETER. 

An areopicnometer has been devised by Eichhorn, 
for determining the specific gravity of liquids of 
which only a small quantity can be obtained. There 
is a glass bulb filled with the liquid the gravity 
of which is to be determined. This is filled with 
the test fluid and closed by an accurate stopper, 
and the instrument placed in a glass cylinder filled 
with distilled water of a temperature of 17.5 degrees 
F. The gravity is at once shown on the divided 
scale. There is a lower bulb containing mercury, 
a small glass tnob, balancing the stopper, and an 
empty floating bulb. 

THE CYCLOSTAT. 

The cyclostat is an instrument devised by Thury 
to permit of continuous observation, without fatigue 
to the observer, of a rapidly rotating body. The prin- 
ciple of the instrument consists in causing the revo- 
lution, around the axis of rotation of the object to be 
observed, of a mirror parallel with such axis, and in 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 223 

observing it in the axis itself after sending the image 
thereto by two reflections or refractions. In reality 
the instrument consists of a small prism above and 
mounted upon a wheel that may be turned at will. 
The rotating object is always seen at rest. It may 
serve for the observation of a swinging thermometer, 
which is read during its motion ; or for the continu- 
ous observation of a body submitted to centrifugal 
force. 

MERCURIAL WEIGHING MACHINE. 

A mercurial weighing machine consists of a tube 
closed at the bottom and forming a reservoir for 
mercury. The body which it is desired to weigh is 
hung upon a hook carried by a cross-bar connected by 
rigid rods to the upper part of the tube, and by internal 
rods attached to a crosshead working freely in the 
tube. To the crosshead is attached a piston made of 
wood or of a metal tube closed at the end. When 
a weight is hung upon the hook, the piston is 
closed to descend into the mercury, which rises in 
the annular space between the piston and the tube. 
The weight of the volume of displaced mercury is 
proportionate to that of the body hung upon the 
hook. 

IMPROVED PHOTOMETER. 

Professor S. P. Thompson has invented a pho- 
tometer, to effect the determination of the two princi- 
pal focal planes, and of the two principal " planes of 
Gauss " for any compound system of lenses. By it 
can be determined the true focal length and the po- 
sition and distance apart of the two vertical optical cen- 
ters of the lens system. The lens is mounted upon a 



224 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

stand, and a parallel beam sent through it from right 
to left. A screen is moved up until the beam is fixed 
upon it ; then a beam is sent through from right to 
left, arid its focus found on that side. Then both 
screens are drawn back from the lens at equal speeds 
until the image of each screen is focused on the other. 
The displacement given to the screens is equal to the 
true focal length. 

INSTRUMENT FOR DETERMINING FORGING POINTS. 

An instrument for rapidly determining the melt- 
ing points of metals comprises a platinum strip heated 
by an electric current, which can be varied by resist- 
ances. The end of this strip bears against a lever, 
which carries at its remote extremity a contact piece 
which can come against the point of a micrometer 
screw, and then close a small local circuit, in which 
there are two galvanoscopes. Over the strip there is 
a microscope having in its field of view the indicator 
of one of the galvanoscopes. A small quantity of the 
substance to be melted is placed on the strip and 
watched through the microscope, the temperature 
being gradually raised. At each increment of current 
the micrometer screw is adjusted to just break the 
local circuit, and when finally the specimen goes away 
the position of the screw is read. The temperature is 
obtained by a curve constructed by experimenting 
with a series of metals the temperature of fusion of 
which is well known. By this instrument differences 
of temperature of two degrees C. may be read up to 
1600°. 

Cailletet has described to the French Physical 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 225 

Society a way of connecting a metal tube or stop cock 
to a glass or porcelain vessel, so that the joint shall be 
tight even under high pressures. The glass vessel is 
first coated with a very thin layer of platinum at the 
part where the connection is to be made. This may 
be done by painting the glass, after slightly warming 
it, with a neutralized solution of platinic chloride 
mixed with essential oil of chamomile. The layer of 
oil and chloride is slowly heated until the oil is all ex- 
pelled, then the temperature is raised to a dark red 
heat. On the layer of platinum thus produced, a 
layer of copper is deposited by electrolysis, and the 
metal stop cock or tube may be soldered by tin and 
a copper ring. Such joints have kept tight under 
300 pounds per square inch. 

The transmission of heat through cast iron plates 
has been shown by R. C. Carpenter to lessen after 
they have been exposed to immersion in diluted nitric 
acid, up to a certain time, after which it remains 
constant. 

The polymeter is a new instrument for indicating 
the state of the atmosphere, its temperature, relative 
humidity or percentage of moisture, vapor tension, 
and dew point or absolute humidity. 

Dewar has showed liquid oxygen boiling at a 
temperature of minus 200° Celsius. 



226 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 



MEDICINE. 

The skill of the physicians of the present day, shown 
in their everyday successful practice among their pri- 
vate patients and in the great hospitals which are open 
to the afflicted poor, rivals even that of the " skilled 
leeches " of fiction, who by pouring from a small vial 
a few drops — sometimes, indeed, but a single drop — 
of a clear fluid, brought the dying to life and strength, 
speech and action, within the space of a few minutes 
at most. The study of existing compounds under 
various circumstances, and the search for new ones, 
have given to the medical world a rapidly increasing 
list of remedial agents which affect special organs and 
produce special conditions at will ; and when one 
views the cures that are made, and considers the claims 
that are advanced for the new agents and new modes 
of treatment, one can but wonder that a single invalid 
having the money to pay for treatment, and the 
ability to get within reach of the possessor of the 
special knowledge of life and death, should remain ill 
a week. 

When we consider the eagerness with which the 
public seizes upon every new chance of life, and the 
proneness of quacks to speculate upon the credulity, 
the fears, and the ills of those who care for them, we 
should wonder that there are not more cases than 
there really are, of remedies which, like the Koch 
lymph (announced to cure lupus under certain condi- 
tions, and claimed and believed by the unwise to be a 
certain cure for consumption of the lungs), blazing 
forth in the scientific firmament with cometic sudden- 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 227 

ness and speed, and as suddenly going, like those 
" wandering hairy stars," to find a dark corner in 
oblivion. 

THE TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION. 

The claim is made bv Dr. McCall Anderson that 
galloping consumption may be cured by keeping up 
the strength, keeping down the fever, and treating any 
special symptom or complication that may arise. 
This is done by having two thoroughly reliable trained 
nurses, feeding the patient upon fluid food (avoiding 
soup if diarrhea is present) and day and night giving 
stimulants. At bedtime a subcutaneous injection of 
atropine (from y^-g- to -^ gr.) is given. The tempera- 
ture is kept down by giving ice to suck, by sponging 
with iced vinegar and water, or even by iced enemata ; 
but more effectually by Niemeyer's antipyretic pills 
every four hours, containing 1 gr. quinine, \ to 1 gr. 
digitalis, and \ to \ gr. opium. Every day 10 to 30 
grains of quinine are to be given, either in one dose or 
all within an hour. As long as the temperature ex- 
ceeds 100 degrees iced cloths should be put to the 
abdomen for half an hour every two hours. 

Mr. A. Judson Palmer has a note upon the beneficial 
effect of hydrastis in phthisis, as showed by thirty 
years' practice, as a local application to inflamed 
mucous surfaces, and by three years' test with it, in 
spray, for the lungs. During the first month of treat- 
ment the night sweats disappear, the cough and ex- 
pectoration are diminished, the appetite and digestion 
are better, and strength is gained. It is best used in 
the proportion of one part of the fluid extract of 



228 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

hydrastia can. to three of a saturated solution of 
common salt ; although it is also used with glycerine 
and water. The inhalations are given twice daily. 

The recent experiments in injecting the blood of a 
dog into the veins of a rabbit have been shown to be 
very desirable in the treatment of tuberculosis, or, as 
it is ordinarily called, consumption of the lungs. 

Dr. Anders has come to the conclusion that the 
number of deaths from phthisis is smaller in propor- 
tion to the population in wide streets than in narrow 
ones ; and that in the latter it is the greatest where 
they are long, or where they form cuts de sac. 

Dr. Win. H. Gregg calls attention to the wonder- 
ful value of terpene iodide in diseases of the lungs. 
He says that it enters into the circulation unchange- 
ably, acting as quickly as though administered hypo- 
dermically. In acute affections of the throat it may 
be used in spray ; in other cases it may be given to 
adults in ten-drop doses on sugar, once or twice a 
day — in the morning, and at bedtime. The morning 
dose should be followed up by a glass of milk or 
bouillon. 

Liebruch proposes, as a cure for consumption, the 
cantharidate of potash, which excites serous exudation 
from the capillary vessels, and increases expectoration. 
The dose is one or two decimilligrams, by injection. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 229 

TREATMENT OF DIPHTHERIA. 

Dr. Sydney -Turner, of Gloucester, England, says 
that he has treated 30 cases of diphtheria with paraffin 
(oil) of the kind used in lamps ; the diphtheritic patch 
being scraped off, and the oil applied with a brush to 
the throat. As a rule the throat got well in 24 to 48 
hours. 

Loeffler shows that for diphtheria, where there is 
danger of infection, the best of all treatment consists 
in using as a gargle, for five to ten seconds every three 
hours, one in 10,000 to one in 15,000 solution of mer- 
curic chloride, or better, a one in 8000 to one in 10,000 
solution of mercuric cyanide. Other good gargles are 
weak chloroform water, chlorine water containing one 
of the gas to 100 of water, or a solution of one part 
of thymol in 500 of 20 per cent, alcohol. Substances 
active in the vapor form are oils of sweet orange peel 
(oil of Portugal), lemon, eucalyptus, and spike, as well 
as anisol, phenetol, benzol, and toluol. 

Behring and Kitasato state that they have dis- 
covered that the blood of an animal which has been 
made immune against diphtheria will destroy the poi- 
son formed by the microbe of this disease. 

REMEDY FOR TYPHOID FEVER. 

The new method of treating typhoid fever consists, 
according to Dujardin-Beaumetz, of Paris, in the use 
of salol or resorcin to lessen and prevent putridity of 
the bowels ; this by reason of its not being irritant as 
naphthol is, besides which it is not destroyed as a 



230 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

medicament by the processes of digestion. The 
quantity per 24 hours is between two and four grams 
(one-half to one dram). Salicylate of bismuth may 
be added if desired. Instead of cold baths, lotions, 
wet packings, and tepid baths are used ; the baths hav- 
ing a temperature of from 30° to 32° C, or about 10° 
C. cooler than the body of the patient ; thus reducing 
the temperature and freshening the skin. The treat- 
ment consists, first, in lotion, then, if the temperature 
exceeds 40° C, tepid baths, one or two per day ; and 
if the patient is feeble, stimulating drinks while in the 
bath. To terminate the fever, sulphate of quinine 
and benzoate of sodium are used. Abundant drinks 
are given to facilitate diuresis. 

TREATMENT OF SMALLPOX. 

Pitting by smallpox has been entirely prevented 
by Dr. Lewintaner, of Constantinople, by antiseptic 
treatment as follows : the entire head and face, ex- 
cepting the eyes, are covered with a plaster consisting 
of three parts of carbolic acid, and 50 parts- each of 
olive oil and starch. The body is covered with a 
mixture of three parts of salicylic acid, thirty of starch, 
and seventy of olive oil. The internal treatment con- 
sists in giving quinine in acid solution. 

HAY FEVER, INFLUENZA, AND WHOOPING COUGH. 

Rixa announces definitely that he has been able to 
subdue hay fever in a number of cases by the follow- 
ing treatment : two weeks before the expected 
attack, all were ordered to irrigate the nose with 
warm salt and water four times a day ; then a few 
minutes after this to spray the nares with peroxide 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 231 

of hydrogen and chemically pure glycerine, half and 
half. To those subject to inflammation of the eye- 
lids, a wash of a two per cent, solution of boric acid 
was given. Three days before the usual onset there 
were given five grains of pbenacetine and five of 
salol, three times a day. This treatment was kept up 
through the season until late, when the frequency of 
application was reduced. All the patients could 
attend to business for the first time in many years. 

Prof. Tessier, of Lyons, has shown that influenza 
is a growth of Russian soil, and that when not a rag- 
ing malady it is a smoldering one. It is caused by the 
way the people live in winter, locked up in hot houses ; 
by the flatness and bad drainage of the soil, and its 
universally sodden condition when the April thaw 
begins, and by the filthiness of the farmyards, village 
streets, and suddenly swollen rivers. 

Common thyme has been pronounced by Neovius 
as almost a specific for whooping cough ; the dose 
being only one and a half to six ounces per day, with 
a little marshmallow syrup. 

THE COMPRESSED AIR TREATMENT. 

Corning has a paper on the use of compressed air 
in conjunction with medicinal solutions in the treat- 
ment of nerves and mental affections. The svstem 

m 

emplo} r s a large cylindrical metal chamber capable 
of hermetic closure and able to stand 160 pounds 
per square inch. The amount of air pressure is ad- 
justable at will. It is considered an advantage for 
introducing the remedy into the system, to get a 



232 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

certain amount of blood in one or more of the extrem- 
ities. This is done by ligatures, or tight elastic 
stockings or bandages. The medicinal remedy is 
then introduced by mouth or rectum, or hypodermi- 
cally. The patient enters the chamber, the air pump 
is set in motion, and by degrees the compression of the 
air progresses — say up to thirty pounds per square 
inch. At the end of the desired time the pressure is 
very gradually lowered ; and during such reduction 
the bandages are removed by the patient. At the 
same time he swallows aromatic spirits of ammonia to 
which tonic has been added. 

MEDICAL PREVENTION OF SUICIDES AND MURDERS. 

Dr. Haig has shown the influence of uric acid in 
causing headache. He proved that the urine secreted 
during the headache always contained a considerable 
excess of uric acid in proportion to one in twenty or 
one in twenty-five to the urea, while that immediately 
before the attack contains a diminished quantity. He 
found that by influencing the secretion of uric acid 
he could influence the headache as well ; acids reliev- 
ing or removing the headache while alkalies made it 
worse. He also found that by giving acid for a day 
or two he could store up uric acid in the tissues, and 
then by giving an alkali could wash it out into the 
blood and urine, and bring on an attack of headache at 
will. He has shown that if uric acid is first removed 
by salicylate of sodium, a dose of alkali will produce 
another and plus secretion of uric acid and a head- 
ache. He found in epilepsy a minus excretion of uric 
acid preceding, and a plus secretion accompanying. 
He found that the chief substances which diminish 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 233 

the excretion of uric acid in the urine are acids, iron 
and lead, and opium ; those which increase it, soda or 
potash under certain conditions, phosphate of sodium, 
and salicylates. He states that milk, fish, and eggs 
constitute the only animal food completely removing 
the attacks without the use of any drugs, and that a 
man eating meat three times a day, drinking acid beer 
and wine, may keep back and store up in his body 
several ounces of uric acid in a few years, while on 
the above diet he would not store up as many grains. 
He believes that many a case of suicide, and some 
murders, might be prevented by a timely dose of acid 
which would free the brain circulation from the power 
of the acid. 

Tunker has found that the blood during life contains 
less sugar than after death, and that that of persons 
suffering from cancer contains more sugar and reduc- 
ing substances than that of healthy persons, or those 
having other diseases. 

Sciolla shows that the density of the human blood 
diminishes during acute febrile states and the first 
stages of convalescence, increasing with greater or 
less rapidity according to the nature of the disease. 
The blood serum increases in density as soon as there 
is any improvement in the patient ; it is diminished 
in malaria, while that of the blood is diminished. 
Ordinary tuberculose diseases only slightly modify 
the density of both serum and blood. Both are 
diminished in catarrhal jaundice. In cirrhosis of the 
liver, and cancer of the gall-bladder, the density of 
the blood is almost normal, while that of the serum 



234 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

is increased. In mild forms of diabetes the densities 
of both are not greatly diminished. The greatest 
diminution in the blood density occurs in diseases ac- 
companied with grave morbid changes in the blood ; 
particularly pneumonia. In typhoid fever the albu- 
mens of the blood diminish unless the diarrhea is ex- 
cessive. 

It is proposed to use the bottom water of the Dead 
Sea as an antiseptic. It is easily charged with calcium 
salts, and bromide of magnesium. In an attempt to 
cultivate in it various kinds of bacilli, those of 
diphtheria, measles, scarlatina, smallpox, etc., died at 
once ; those of tetanus or of gangrene being the only 
ones which survived 48 hours. 

A new local anaesthetic is chloride of ethyl, a 
colorless mobile liquid having a peculiar and pleasant 
odor and a sweetish burning taste. It is furnished in 
sealed glass tubes ; when required for use the point 
of the tube is snapped off, and the heat of the hand 
causes the chloride to be projected in a fine stream 
which may be directed upon the part affected. 

A substitute for quinine is afforded in pambutano, 
the root of a shrub. 

Hunger has been shown to be favorable to infection 
by anthrax. 

The juice of the unripe cocoanut is used with great 
satisfaction as a culture food in bacteriology. 

Dr. Bordas states that he has isolated and cultivated 
the microbe of rheumatism. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 235 

Herstey reports that several cases of gastric ulcer 
have been cured by an ice-cream diet, and ascribes 
its efficacy to the local anaesthetic action of the cold 
permitting digestion to go on without pain while 
sufficient nourishment is supplied. 



SURGERY. 



The introduction of anaesthetics, and the great ad- 
vance in antistyptic dressings and treatment, have 
rendered it possible to perform many operations which 
perhaps could have been done by the surgeons of old, 
had they been furnished with facilities of a grade equal 
to their knowledge of anatomy and to their skill of 
manipulation. 

The most remarkable or most prominent case of the 
past year has been that in which the attempt was 
made (too late, unfortunately) to graft part of the 
bone of a dog's leg to supply the place of a short 
length removed from the shin of a boy. As showing 
that it is possible to cause perfect union between 
healthy bone tissues of dog and man, and, during the 
operation, to establish pefect identity of nourishing 
circulation between the two animals, the human and 
the canine, the attempt was a success. But the num- 
ber of times that the unfortunate cripple had been 
tortured unsuccessfully for the treatment of the poor 
cracked limb, which had been broken and reset, broken 
and reset, time out of mind, militated against the 
success of this operation, while leaving its projector 
and the public reasonably sure that under more 
favorable circumstances, with the knowledge and 



236 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

experience gained by a test of the past year, the opera- 
tion, or kindred ones, will be brought to the desired 
conclusion. 

Skin-grafting has been rendered much more easy 
by a process for removing strips of human skin about 
■g*0 of an inch thick, an inch wide, and six inches long, 
by a shaving apparatus. 

In Chicago 132 Knights Templar submitted 
themselves to the surgeon's knife in order that a 
smooth piece of flesh might be taken from each to be 
used in skin-grafting on a brother member, upon 
whom an operation had been performed for cancer. 
There were 144 square inches to be covered. A fail- 
ure resulted. He died Febuary 24 ; his stomach 
having given out, his system having been overtaxed 
by numerous operations ; and when nourishment 
failed the wounds ceased to heal. 

A remarkable case of the successful removal of a 
piece of metal embedded in the retina is reported by 
Dr. Tatham Thompson, the ophthalmic surgeon to the 
Cardiff Infirmary. A blacksmith was engaged in 
December last at a colliery near Pontypridd in stamp- 
ing new tools, when a small splinter of steel flew off 
and struck him in the white of the left eye, causing 
irritation and other symptoms which eventually ren- 
dered it necessary either to remove the eye or to make 
an attempt to extract the cause of the trouble. The 
latter daring experiment being decided upon, the 
patient was put under the influence of ether. The 
little wound was then reopened with an instrument 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 237 

known as a cataract knife, and the curved pole of an 
electric magnet was introduced. This was then passed 
across the vitreous body, as nearly as could be judged, 
in the direction traversed by the splinter. On the 
first withdrawal nothing appeared, but the second 
attempt, in which the pole was passed still further, 
ended in the fragment of steel passing easily through 
the opening in tow of the magnet. The sufferer has 
since resumed his duties^ with restored si^ht. 

It would seem that laparotomy was not 
necessary in cases of swallowing foreign bodies, such 
as nails, screws, etc.; the course at present adopted 
being feeding the patient on nothing but potatoes, 
which increase the amount of faeces, thus affording an 
excellent opportunity for the foreign substance to be 
passed oat per vias naturales. 



PRINTING AND TYPEWRITING. 

THE GREATEST PRINTING PRESS IN EXISTENCE. 

What has been claimed by its owners, the pro- 
prietors of the Philadelphia Item, as the greatest 
press in existence, is a quadruple press of the Hoe 
web perfecting type. Its owners say of it : " The 
capacity of this press is limited only by the conditions 
of paper and roller composition. If the paper is of 
sufficient strength, and the rollers all right, the Hoe 
quadruple can be run at extraordinary speed, surpass- 
ing anything yet attempted or anything expected. 
. . . . We made the trial run (to break all previous 
records), and with two stop watches, we got an 



238 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

actual output of 1060 eight-page papers in one minute. 
This record was made in the presence of Mr. D. L. 
Ward, of Bulkley, Ward & Co., of Philadelphia, and 
verified by him. This would show a speed of 63,600 
eight page papers, or 12 7,200 four-page papers to the 
hour. We believe that this press is capable of run- 
ning 1200 eight-page papers to the minute, although 
we do not think such a speed advisable. Our regular 
running speed is 50,000 to 55,000 eight-page papers 
to the hour. We use good paper, good ink, and the 
best rollers. This speed is 10,000 higher than that of 
any quadruple press in operation in New York City.'' 

IMPROVEMENTS IN COLOR PRINTING. 

Oldfield, of London, has produced a process of print- 
ing by which any number of colors may be printed at 
one operation by an attachment which may be made 
to any Wharfdale or cylinder machine. The device 
is not suitable for pictorial work, but for posters and 
circulars in which successive lines are printed in dif- 
ferent colors and the whole surrounded by a colored 
border. To print a black circular, with a red head- 
line and a green border, the form is placed in the 
machine so that the line of type runs in the direction 
of the machine. There is an ink slab in line with the 
upper headline of the same or slightly greater width, 
and supplied with ink of the desired headline color ; 
this inks the main inking roller. The main body of 
the circular is inked by another slab supplying only 
black ink to the roller, and the top and bottom 
borders are inked from two other small slabs. As 
the borders come under the main inking roller the 
latter is lifted clear of the type by small strips of 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 239 

wood on the moving carriage, which run under the 
ends of the roller, thus raising them clear. The side 
borders are inked by a distinct set of rollers which 
take their ink from separate slabs, and as the form 
passes under them are lifted clear of the type by 
wooden slips as with the main inking roller ; but 
these slips are cut away at the proper places to let the 
roller down at the moment the colored side border is 
passing underneath it. 

A rotary press for printing several colors at once 
has been brought out by Marinoni for printing the 
illustrated supplement of the Petit Journal, It is 
printed on one side by one cylinder and on the other 
by four, each printing a separate color ; the first side 
being reserved for the text. It may be arranged for 
printing two copies broadwise. The difficulties of 
impasting have been solved by striating the plates. 
It uses relief blocks made from isochromatic photo- 
graphic plates. The machine can give the delicate 
tints of aquarelle by superposed colors, the intervals 
showing the white of the paper. The maker is now 
building a machine for printing in six colors. 

TYPESETTING MACHINES. 

There seem to be in the market and in use several 
typesetting machines that may be said to be practical, 
inasmuch as daily journals and large book printing 
establishments are equipped with them and running 
successfully ; but legal complications among their 
patentees and owners appear likely to postpone their 
day of universal adoption. 

Earl Beals, of Muskegon, Mich., has invented two, 



240 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

the first of which corresponds to a typewriter, and is 
operated by a compositor, who works from the copy. 

This, instead of being printed, as by a typewriter, 
is transferred to a strip of paper by perforations made 
by striking the keys on the fingerboard, the particular 
letters or characters being determined by the distance 
of the perforation from a base line. 

When the copy has thus been transferred to the 
strip of paper, the latter is taken to the second 
machine, which is worked automatically by electricity, 
and, as each line is composed, impresses it into matrix 
paper in a way that makes a perfect mold of the 
line. The matrix paper moves along automatically 
as the lines are composed, until a mold is obtained 
for a column. 

It is then ready for the electrotyping process. It 
is claimed that it can be operated as rapidly as a type- 
writer. The automatic aligning and impressing 
machine will be capable of handling the matter 
turned off from two or three of the perforators. 
The capacity is said to be equal to about twenty men 
at the case. 

BASE FOR ELECTROTYPES. 

A new and secure base for electrotype plates is said to 
be made by taking the plate off the usual wooden 
block, fitting it with very strong wire pins, which are 
to be bent into hooks at the back of the plate ; the 
plate being then mounted on Portland cement poured 
under it. It is said that one thus mounted has been 
treated for warmth, cold, and damp, and stands any 
amount of printing without alteration. Plates thus 
backed have been in use three years as an experiment. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 241 

BOOK TYPEWRITER. 

A typewriter for working in bound books, as those 
of record, the desirability of which machine was first 
pointed out by the writer, some years ago, is said to 
have been produced by Austin Lowe, of Minneapolis, 
Kan. It may be clasped to the book, and strikes 
directly downward. 



ELECTRICITY. 



Of all the arts and sciences, electricity has made 
the most advance during the past decade ; but it 
cannot be said that in 1891 there have been made any 
colossal strides in any one direction, the advance 
being all along the line, and being due to steady re- 
search and increase of expertness. The new science 
has become the ally of every useful art, of most of 
the ornamental lines of human occupation and amuse- 
ment. It has been promoted to the studio of the 
artist, installed in the domestic kitchen, called upon 
to serve the hospital, enlisted in the active participa- 
tion of commercial and manufacturing business, 
pressed into the army and navy, and altogether made 
the handmaid of the useful and ornamental arts, the 
advocate of the nation, and the angel of the fireside. 
It now embraces more ramifications and complications 
than its most enthusiastic follower could or would 
have predicted a score of years ago ; and more than 
may be laid to the count of any other science. 

Glancing along the line of electrical work, and of 
electric research, that department in which most prog- 



242 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

ress has been made seems to be in the development 
of the alternating current, particularly for long trans- 
missions of current for lighting and for power. 

Of the strictly professional work in this line, the 
paper by Nikola Tesla is the most interesting, and, with 
the experiments which accompany it, the most re- 
markable ; showing among other things how light may 
be produced wholly by induction in lamps or in illu- 
minating surfaces carried about free from electrical 
connection of any kind, in an ordinary apartment. 
The limits of such a chronicle as this do not permit 
of giving even an abstract of this wonderful discourse, 
which is now recorded in a form easy of access by 
any student of modern electricity. 

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT. 

During the month of December an interesting 
lighting experiment was tried at the Eden Musee, New 
York, with four automatic arc focusing lamps at as 
many different points around the gallery ; these lamps 
receiving current from the regular incandescent cir- 
cuit. There was no glare, by reason of the use of 
lenses ; but the entire auditorium was flooded with 
light. The incandescent lamps which were burning 
were not interfered with. It is proposed to install 
four of these reflectors in large vases which will con- 
ceal the source of light while throwing rays in all di> 
rections. 

Somoff is making incandescent lamps for inspection 
of the human stomach or bladder, the smallest lamp be- 
ing but three millimeters in diameter and five long. 
It is a one-candle power lamp requiring from three and 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 243 

one-half to twelve volts. Even with the higher 
voltage, the small amount of current (0.2 ampere) 
would not heat up the globe to any more than the 
temperature of the human body. 

A new electric railway lamp has a carbon support 
for the filaments, sealed in the tip of the bulb, prevent- 
ing excessive vibration and rupture of the filament. 

A new way of repairing incandescent electric 
lamps, invented by Pauthonier, is described in The 
Electrician. The lamp has pierced in its bulb a hole 
large enough to let the old filament be taken out ; 
then, the old one being cut off, all but short pieces, a 
new one is welded to those stumps, by filling the bulb 
with a liquid hydrocarbon, and introducing the new 
filament. One end of the filament being pressed 
against the stump of the old one, and the current 
passed through the joint, the hydrocarbon is decom- 
posed, and the two ends joined. Then the other ends 
are welded in the same way. Next, the glass is 
bleached. 

A very simple incandescent lamp socket is nothing 
more than a coil of brass wire mounted on a wooden 
base, one end being fastened under an ordinary 
screw ; in the center of this coil another screw is set into 
the board, its end projecting on the opposite side, and 
this screw forms the other terminal of the lamp. An in- 
candescent lamp may be screwed into the socket in the 
ordinary manner, and in wiring it is only necessary to 
attach one of the lead wires to the projecting end of 
the screw on the back of the base, and attach the 



244 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

other lead wire under the second screw on the front 
of the board base. It is claimed that with this 
socket, which is for temporary work, one man can 
wire 50 lamps per hour. 

A flexible lamp support consists of a universal joint, 
made up of metal rings and capable of being twisted 
into almost any conceivable curve. 

Mr. C. F. Brush has put up, at his residence in 
Cleveland, an electric light plant, consisting of a wind- 
mill 56 feet in diameter with a surface of 1800 square 
feet, mounted on a tower 60 feet high and driving a 
dynamo working accumulators. The whole tower is 
carried around on a fourteen-inch wrought iron pivot. 
The main shaft is 6J inches diameter and 20 feet 
long. The entire weight of the dynamo, counter- 
shaft, pulleys, and belts is carried by this, the weight 
being 4200 pounds. The dynamo makes fifty turns 
to one of the shaft. The electro-motive force cannot 
rise above 90 volts. The current is led to 408 ac- 
cumulators, divided into 1 2 batteries. Each cell has 
a capacity of 100 ampere-hours. 

The use of the electric light on the Suez Canal has 
reduced the time of transit from 36 hours to 24. 

The new electric lamp in the lighthouse on St. Cath- 
erine's Point, Isle of Wight, is the most powerf ul in 
the world. The light is equivalent to that of 3,000,000 
candles, and it can be increased to that of 6,000,000. 
It is visible at a distance of about forty-five miles. 

Anew electric lamp for lantern .projection consists 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 245 

of a small metal box in two parts, bolted together 
and insulated from each other at the joints. There 
are attached to this box two tubes, one on each side, 
each holding a carbon pencil, one of which is 
hollow and has sliding freely in it an auxiliary- 
carbon rod. The lower carbon is solid. Between 
the two large carbons there is a block of marble, 
which has an opening in one side. The marble block 
keeps the two large rods at a fixed distance apart, but 
the small rod slides down and makes electrical con- 
tact, to start the light ; then it is automatically with- 
drawn. The marble block is brought to a white heat. 

In a new projecting lamp the carbons comprise a 
rod concentric with a tube, and the arc is constructed 
by removing the rod from contact with the side of 
the tube into a central position. In*some of the 
models a series coil is placed around the carbons to 
shift the arc into the desired position, or to push it 
forward so that it could be used as a blowpipe. Such 
a lamp would probably work best with alternating 
currents to keep the carbon consumption even. 

Wertz, of New York, has produced a combination 
arc and incandescent lamp. The carbons are in a 
glass globe, and burn so slowly that no feeding is re- 
quired. There is a short, thick, hollow carbon, within 
which is a second one as a core, there being an as- 
bestos sheath to prevent their touching except at the 
top, where the inner one has a large round head, 
which rests upon the upper end of the outer one. It 
is intended for high tension series working. 



246 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

RECENT DYNAMOS. 

The great Ferranti dynamos at Deptford Central 
Station, London, are of 10,000 horse power each. 
The armature rings are 35 feet in diameter, and with 
their shafts weigh 225 tons each. The field magnets 
weigh 225 tons each, exclusive of the bedplate. One 
5000-horse power engine is at each end of the shaft. 
There are to be five such dynamos, each supplying 
200,000 incandescent lamps. 

From the ground to the top of the high pressure 
cylinder of the engine is to be 48 feet. The over-all 
dimension of the dynamo is 45 feet, of which 16 is 
below the floor level. 

In the latest type of Siemens compound-wound 
dynamo, witli drum armature, wrought iron field mag- 
nets have been used, of smaller cross section than 
those adopted by many makers, and these have been 
wound with the series wire on only one limb, simpli- 
fying the connections. The armature is of iron disks, 
and the conductors consist of strands compressed in- 
to rectangular bars, arranged around the armature in 
the usual way. 

In the Winkler dynamo there is a Gramme ring 
which furnishes the exciting current, and a Siemens 
winding, which furnishes the working current ; and 
there are two commutators, one for each of these 
windings. Between the two end plates and insulated 
from them is a series of iron conductors dropping be- 
low the periphery of the end plates nearly to the shaft, 
and connected across their tops to form a Gramme 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 247 

winding. Before the upper connecting bars are put 
in position, however, insulating material is placed 
over the frame formed by the armature conductors, 
and iron wire is then spun upon the armature as in the 
ordinary Gramme construction, until a solid mass is 
built up flush with the end plates. Then the connect- 
ing bars are put in position, the insulation plates 
between them, and the core finished up, giving the 
Gramme rings with a comparatively small number of 
segments formed of iron conductors. The requisite 
amount of magnetic material being furnished by iron 
wire, laid on after the armature is finished to this 
point, it is wound just as any other drum armature 
would be, with a single layer of copper. This gives 
two distinct circuits upon the armature, one a Gramme 
Avinding capable of delivering the exciting current 
for the field magnets, the other an ordinary Siemens 
winding of sufficient power to give the desired volt- 
age. The field coils are compound-wound, the prin- 
cipal magnetizing circuit being connected to the 
Gramme winding. A compound winding of the 
ordinary sort is supplied outside of the coils of the 
separately excited circuit. One of the objects of this 
construction is to avoid the severe self-inductive shock 
that can be received from the powerful shunt coils of 
an ordinary machine. 

The Brush Company has produced a generator for 
the transmission of power, being of the closed arma- 
ture type, the core of the armatures being made up of 
thin sheet iron wound on a foundation ring and 
riveted. The edsres of this rin^ are then milled out 
slightly to allow for the bobbins. The wires from 



248 RECOKD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

the armature to the commutator are carried along the 
shaft and are well covered. The bearing on the 
commutator side of the dynamo is outside the com- 
mutator to allow a clear way for the connections 
between armatures and commutators. No outside 
governor is required. They will be wound for 1000 
volts. The commutator is said to run with practically 
no spark. 

Parsons & Co., of Newcastle-on-Tyne, have brought 
out a steam turbine and electric current dynamo com- 
bined in one frame. The speed is 4500 to 5000 turns 
per minute. 

A 1000 H. P. dynamo for the electrolytic reduction 
of aluminium has been designed by Willson. The 
pulley by which it is run is five feet in diameter, and 
the armature is two feet in diameter and four feet 
long. 

This dynamo is of the Gramme construction, the 
armature weighing 6163 pounds and the frame con- 
taining 11,000 pounds of castings and 7000 of solid 
forgings. The machine, with a small pulley, weighs 
nearly 30,000 pounds. The designer intends it to 
put out 750,000 watts if necessary. 

In a system of belting proposed for dynamos the 
fly wheel of the engine is made to bear on the top or 
slack fold of a horizontal belt connecting the dynamo 
shaft with an idler pulley, which swings in a frame. 
When the slack top fold is brought up against the 
under side of the fly wheel (or other driving pulley 
on the engine shaft) the dynamo is driven ; but slack- 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 249 

ing the belt does away with the contact between the 
driving pulley and the belt, and of course stops the 
motion of the dynamo without arresting that of the 
engine. 

A new carbon brush holder for motors and dynamos 
consists of bat five parts, yet without a screw or a 
nut to work loose and fall out. A play of three- 
quarters of an inch allows adjustment in either direc- 
tion when the commutator becomes worn, while the 
carbon brushes may be removed or replaced with a 
single hand while the machine is still in service, thus 
avoiding the possibility of a shock. 

ELECTRIC POWER STATIONS. 

The Edison Electric Illuminating Company, New 
York, is building, at Pearl and Elm streets, a station 
with a capacity of 30,000 horse power, the engines 
being of the vertical four-crank four-stage type with 
initial pressure of 220 pounds ; each engine being of 
5000 horse power. The radiant heat of the engines, 
machinery, and piping will be made to flow over the 
boilers and through a piping gallery and an arrange- 
ments of pipes in the chimney flue ; being finally dis- 
charged into ash pits and over the grates in the 
proportion of 80 and 20 per cent, respectively, at a 
temperature of 200 degrees. The steam mains will 
be of copper, none over eight inches in diameter, and 
each wound with steel wire for its entire length and 
corrugated into the flanges, no brazed joints being 
used. The chief electrician expects to reduce the 
coal consumption to one pound per horse power per 
hour. 



250 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

The West End power station in Boston will sur- 
pass anything of the kind that has ever been built. 
In October there was started one of the two engines 
in place of the 13 which it is expected will be in use 
when the plant is completed. It is triple expansion, 
drop cut off ; with 28-foot fly wheel, ten feet seven 
inches face, weighing 80 tons, and using two belts 
each four and one-half feet wide, running 6000 feet 
per minute. The countershaft will be in sections of 
40 feet long, with friction clutches, so that there will 
be two lines of shafting, 240 and 280 feet long re- 
spectively. There will be 34 electric generators each 
of 500 maximum horse power ; height nine feet, width 
eight feet, length 16 feet and weighing 35 tons each. 
The engine house is 315 feet long and 170 wide. 
The boiler house, 160 feet long, 80 wide, will con- 
tain 24 boilers with a stack 252 feet high. The 
station will have a capacity of 12,000 horse power, 
and the Cambridge station 5000, for operating 850 
long cars. 

ELECTRIC RAILWAYS. 

In the Love electric conduit system, in Chicago, 
the conduit is but 15 inches deep, and, as the slot 
rails are readily detachable, may be easily cleaned. 
The copper conductors, or trolley wares, form a com- 
plete metallic circuit, and are supported on glass 
block insulators, through the center of which the 
wire passes. The trolley has two contact wheels for 
each conductor, so arranged by springs that it will 
press against the conductor at an ordinary angle. 

A new electric railway type (V. V. Vansize, Plain- 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. , 251 

field, N". J.) has a series of secondary batteries in 
cellars, or other convenient places along the route, 
one-fourth to one-half mile apart ; these are con- 
nected to a high tension charging current, which is 
completely insulated from the discharging and work- 
ing current. The track is divided into a number of 
these circuits, the rails being the conductors. By 
connecting the secondary batteries with the high 
tension current in series, and with the discharging 
current in multiple, a low working pressure can be 
got. 

In the Gordon electric railway system the conduit 
carrying the current is very small ; the supply rail 
is midway between the two line rails, and consists 
of flat iron, laid in concrete, in eight-foot lengths. 
The sections are charged by the full current of 400 
volts, as the car progresses, so that no section is 
charged except those under the car. This is done by 
a system of connections laid in a gas pipe, with T- 
pieces connecting to each length and back to a com- 
municating box, which is the feature of the system. 
These boxes are placed, every 100 yards, under the 
curb, and contain strong long-pull magnets, one for 
each section. As the car progresses, a shunt current 
comes back from section number one to magnet 
number two, which rises and puts section number two 
in connection, cutting off number one, and so on, as 
the car moves, the main reaching the entire length of 
the road. The pull of the magnet is about seven 
pounds. The conduit is closed ; no slots or wires 
that can be touched are needed. By the addition of 
one contact the absolute metallic return of the current 



252 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

can be made by way of the section behind, thus 
avoiding difficulty with the telephone companies. 

A new method of haulage by electricity has been 
brought out by Walker. The locomotive does not 
get its grip by reason of its own weight, but has a 
direct pull on a cable lying between the rails, parallel 
to the road, and fixed at either end. This cable passes 
over a sprocket wheel on the locomotive, or trolley, and 
is driven through suitable gearing by an*electric motor 
supplied with current from a bare copper wire on the 
roof or at the side of the road. Its advantage lies in 
the light weight of the trolley in proportion to its 
tractive power. 

A new parcel-exchange system is proposed by Ben- 
nett with a view to overcome the trouble in many 
large towns that the vehicle traffic is so great that, in 
order to avoid absolute blocking of the thoroughfares, 
the collection or delivery of goods is forbidden in 
special districts in certain hours. The plan is to en- 
able the interchange of parcels between any number 
of buildings, no matter how widely apart they may 
be, by a number of miniature underground electric 
railways, radiating from a central station having 
branch lines or sidings into all the buildings to be 
served ; the tracks to be in rectangular tubes, with 
the up-track in the top and the down-track in the 
lower part. Each train will consist of a motor truck 
and from one to three trailers or other trucks. Con- 
nections with the premises of subscribers would be by 
short branch spurs from the nearest main line. Mr. 
Bennett says that a mother could send her baby 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 253 

bodily to a doctor, via the central station, and receive 
it back with a bottle of medicine in its fist and a mus- 
tard leaf on its chest. 

The electric railway at the World's Fair of 1893 
will be really a traveling sidewalk on an elevated 
structure, 25 feet high, 900 feet long, in the form of 
an ellipse, and consisting of 75 cars, each twelve feet 
long, connected into one solid train. There are to be 
two parallel sidewalks, one running two miles per 
hour, and the other four, both moving in the same 
direction. The passenger may step from the station- 
ary walk to the slow moving, and from that to the fast 
moving one, and may walk upon either one if desired. 
The entire train will be worked bv one man. There 
will be, at a central point one side of the track, a con- 
trolling station containing a main switch, reversing 
switch, automatic circuit breaker, lightning arrester, 
ampere meter, and rheostat, all arranged so as to be 
operated and controlled by one person. 

A new railway line and insulator (the Winton) has 
interlinking hooks inclosed or embedded within the 
insulating material, preferably hard rubber, the hooks 
being separated from each other by a layer of hard 
rubber fastened between them and also covering the 
whole body piece. Each interlocking hook has a 
threaded stud projecting from each end, one to receive 
a clamping ear, and the other to receive supporting 
pieces to be attached to a wire of the bracket. 

A new threading device for underground conduits 
consists of short rods having locking joints, the first 



254 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

one having a cartridge point and the last one a swivel 
to which the wire may be attached. It is claimed 
that the time of pulling a wire through a conduit is 
reduced 80 per cent, and that crooked wires may be 
drawn through by reason of the swivel. 

The Fullerton Avenue electric railway, on the con- 
duit system, is under way in Chicago, exploited by the 
Love Co. 

Vienna and Pesth are to be connected by an electric 
railway on the left bank of the Danube, saving 19 
miles in 140 by taking steeper grades. The speed 
contemplated is 62 miles per hour. 

The first overhead tramway in England was started 
in Leeds October 29, the Thomson-Houston system 
being used. 

Electric railways are proposed in Berlin. Three 
projects are made, of lines to be laid at different levels 
to avoid complications ; one, north and south, to be 
double track, and nine meters underground ; to be in 
an iron tunnel covered with cement ; to have 14 
stations. 

The Honolulu tramways are to adopt electric trac- 
tion by reason of the great cost of forage on the 
Island. 

A safety fender for electric railway cars consists of 
a triangular steel frame projecting from the frame of 
the car, on each side ? the tw r o frames being connected 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 255 

by steel rods at the bottom. Over this frame is a 
stout rope netting. The front and bottom of the fen- 
der are raised nine inches from the rails, to catch and 
throw into the net any person standing on the track, 
no matter at what speed the car might be running. 
In case the person was lying flat on the track, or in 
case of a small child that could by any means pass 
under the fender, a projecting arm would be struck, 
releasing a scoop which drops down to the track in 
front of the wheels. At tests made in Newton, Mass., 
with a dummy of straw and sand, the latter was 
thrown into the netting in every case. 

The Des Moines S. R. W. Co. has an electrical 
track sweeper or cleaner, the parts of which are so 
devised that the running gear and propelling motor 
may be used for conveying passengers in summer, and 
for sweeping and track cleaning in winter. 

ELECTRIC RAILWAY MOTORS. 

In the Henry electric motor for street railways, all 
spring supports are deliberately avoided ; there is 
but one motor instead of two, and only one pair of 
wheels is driven by the gearing, either being operated 
by a connecting rod. This construction lends itself 
only to good track construction. The motor is rigidly 
fastened to the steel frame connecting the axles, its 
ends having bearings on three-inch steel axles parallel 
with the axles of the wheels. The magnetic circuit 
has but two joints, and is in form similar to the 
Reckenzaun type. It is very short in the windings, 
very compact ; there are two consequent poles that 
embrace a Gramme armature 18 inches in diameter, 



256 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

The armature is wound with two layers of No. 7 
wire in 72 segments each, connected to its appropriate 
commutator bar. The winding is continuous through- 
out, loops being taken out at the commutator instead 
of the wire being cut. The fields are wound with No. 
9 wire, the four coils arranged for three combinations 
at the switchboard, two in series, two in parallel, and 
all in parallel, thus giving three speeds. The wire is 
very large and the internal resistance very low, mak- 
ing it desirable to have some arrangement for driving 
the truck through a clutch instead of starting the 
motor each time. The clutch consists of a epicyclic 
gear which can run freely when the pinion is free to 
move, and exert its full power when the pinion is held 
as fast as it can be by a clutch lever. The armature 
runs all the time, and can be allowed to get its full 
speed before any of the load is thrown on. The epi- 
cyclic gear runs in a case full of oil. There is an auto- 
matic brake consisting of two friction wheels, one on 
the axle and the other upon the shaft supporting one 
end of the motor ; the latter is arranged with an ec- 
centric, so that it can be thrown into gear with a 
friction drum on the axle, and set in motion, thus 
winding up the brake chain and checking the car. 

A street car motor made on the Eickenmeyer model 
embodies the features of both the gearless and the 
reduction gear motors in a combined motor and truck. 
The truck form of armature is used, having 74 coils, 
which are wound on an arbor, from which they are 
removed and dried and insulated, then placed in po- 
sition so that, if one becomes damaged, it may be 
removed and replaced without interfering with the 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 25*7 

other or with the other's work. The armature is sup- 
ported midway between the two axles and has its 
shaft connected by ordinary connecting rods with 
crank pins to both axles, the connecting rods being 
attached to both ends of the armature shaft and the 
crank set at 90° to prevent the armatures getting on 
the dead center, and to give a maximum starting 
torque in all positions. A 26 -inch car wheel is used, 
as it is not necessary to raise the motor so far above 
the road bed. The motor is inclosed in an ironclad 
casing. The rheostats are in boxes over the axle, 
and the controlling mechanism, connected by shafts 
running the entire length of the car, may be operated 
from either end. The sills of the car body rest on 
four iron brackets placed on the motor castings, and 
on beams that extend across each end of the truck. 

In the Dahl slow-speed railway motor the armature 
is directly upon the axle, being of the ring type and 
of large diameter, and attached to a non-magnetic 
spider which is placed on the shaft and is free to turn 
about it. Attached to this at one end is half a fric- 
tion clutch, the other side of which is attached to 
the axle by a coiled spring. On each side of the web 
of the spider are two magnetic spools and cores, 
through the latter of which the hub of the spider is 
free to turn. Constant poles are formed by these 
magnets on the interior and exterior of the armature 
alternating in position, these magnets on the outside 
being brought together and held in position by dowel 
pins and a yoke bolted rigidly to them. This yoke is 
fastened to the frame or truck to keep the field mag- 
nets from rotating. The clutch consists of sheet iron 



258 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

disks, each alternate one being fastened at the center 
or at its periphery. Those fastened at the center are 
attached to the ends of the spider ; those fastened at 
the periphery are joined to the spring. The pull 
on the clutch causes it to slip, and the armature ro- 
tates faster than the axle. The armature may be 
kept rotating continuously. The weight of the 15- 
horse power motor is 1690 pounds. 

The Thomson-Houston people have brought out 
a railway motor which is of the two-pole type, being 
so arranged on the theory that the comparatively 
slight gain in weight efficiency that could be ob- 
tained with a multipolar type is more than offset 
by the increased complication in winding. The only 
portions of the machine that are open to the outer 
air are exposed at two oval openings at the ends of 
the armature shaft ; and these may be covered if 
desirable. The whole magnetic circuit is composed 
of two castings bolted together and free to swing 
apart by a hinge, allowing ready access to the arma- 
ture. The armature is about 20 inches in diameter ; 
a very powerful Pacinotti ring nearly six inches on 
the face and about the same depth, wound with 
comparatively coarse wire in 64 sections with 14 
turns to the section. Each coil is tightly placed in 
the space between two of the projecting teeth, and 
about the interior space the separate coils are tightly 
packed, leaving only sufficient room for the four-arm 
driving spider. The armature takes up nearly the 
full height of the machine, the pole pieces being but 
trifling projections ; the requisite cross-section of 
iron being obtained by extending the poles to form a 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 259 

closely fitting iron box. There is but a single mag- 
netizing coil, wound, not directly about the upper 
pole piece, but on the casing metal surrounding it. 
The lower pole is but slightly raised, and both pole- 
pieces are of the greatest extent permissible. The 
use of the single magnetizing coil produces an un- 
balanced field and an upward pull on the bearings, 
tending to remove the pressure on the bearings. 

The gearless electric railway motor brought out by 
the Short Company has some very remarkable fea- 
tures. It is complete in itself, not being keyed to 
the car axle, nor touching it in any point. There are 
eight field magnets, four each side of the armature, 
arranged somewhat as in the Brush dynamo, and fac- 
ing each other at a distance of only 10 inches. They 
are bolted to the framework of the motor, in the 
center of which are the bearings which carry the hol- 
low armature shaft. Double arms, running out from 
the framework to the cross girders on the truck, 
make provision for the supports of the entire motor. 
The insulation between these brackets and the girders 
is provided by heavy rubber bushings through which 
the belts pass. The armature is keyed to a hollow 
steel shaft, concentric with the truck axle, and hav- 
ing an inch clearance all around it. The armature 
proper consists of a laminated iron core upon which 
are mounted separate and entirely independent coils, 
which maybe separately rewound in case of accident. 
Mounted upon the hollow shaft, close to the arma- 
ture is the commutator, which is protected from injury 
by the surrounding pole-pieces and is massive in con- 
struction. On the end of the hollo w shaft are two 



260 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

disks, the peripheries of which are insulated from the 
hubs by a wooden construction. Between the com- 
mutator and the disk on the one side, and the arma- 
ture and a second disk on the other, are the bearings, 
which are carried by the motor frame. A three- 
armed spider is on each bed of the hollow shaft, each 
arm being provided at its end with a socket to re- 
ceive a rubber cushion or spring ; these cushions 
bearing upon lugs cast on the car wheel, and, as the 
armature shaft and spider turn, the action is trans- 
ferred to the car axle. The rubber cushion insulates 
and causes easy starting, and has replaced the me- 
tallic spiral springs of the earlier forms of the motor. 
At a speed of 12 miles per hour, with a 36-inch wheel, 
the armature makes 94 turns per minute. The aver- 
age voltage is 480, amperes 24, electrical horse power 
15.44, average number of passengers 48. 

The Short Company has also placed on the market 
a single-reduction gear motor known as the " water 
tight," dispensing with one pinion and one gear, and 
the remaining gear being run in oil. It uses a large 
Gramme armature. 

In both these motors, by loosening four bolts in 
the frame and taking off the iron strips below, the 
wheel boxes and car having gearless motors may be 
jacked up, and the axle wheels and armature com- 
plete run out from under the car. The armature 
coils may be re-wound without removing the arma- 
ture from the axle, and field coils may be quite easily 
repaired. The commutator may be reached and 
cared for with ease while the machine is running. 
The car may be run over a pit and every part of the 
motor reached without difficulty. The armature 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 261 

weighs only eight pounds and may be taken out by 
two men in eight minutes. 

The Short railway dynamo generator has a heavy 
frame to which are bolted light field magnets carrying 
shunt and series coils, and having pole pieces with side 
presentation to the armature, the magnetic gap being 
narrow and of large diameter. Within this rotates a 
shaft upon which is keyed a spider carrying a foun- 
dation ring upon which the armature is built up. 
The armature core is of thin sheet iron, wound spirally 
on the foundation ring and riveted together. The out- 
side circumference of the ring is wider than the rest, 
and this part is milled out into notches, forming a 
modified Pacinotti ring. The coils are wound on a core 
around the hollow ring, so that each of the 200 coils 
is exposed to the air on all sides. At the commutator 
box is an adjustable bar bearing a thrust collar which 
receives the armature thrust in either direction. The 
commutator has 200 bars and a diameter of 20 inches. 
There are brushes carried by two independent collars 
and sets of brush holders. Multiple carbon brushes 
are used. The field coil terminals are carried to two 
heavy bars held securely in place, each side of the 
machine base. 

A loose- wheel electric truck has wheels 36 inches in 
diameter loose upon the axle, and fitted inside the 
hub with roller bearings carried on a four and one- 
half inch journal. On the inside of each wheel is 
bolted a 20-inch gear, fitting into a pinion eight inches 
in diameter, keyed to each end of the armature shaft. 
This applies power to four points and gives traction 



262 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

on all wheels. The entire weight of the motor is sup- 
ported by two rigid axles, thus overcoming the friction 
caused by the motor bearing upon a rotating axle. 
The truck is interchangeable and will swivel under 
either an open or a closed car, and will take any radius 
of curve without interfering with the car sills. 

An equalizing electric motor truck has a cross 
equalizing bar across one end, by which there is 
effected a three-point suspension of the car body, a 
double spring being in front of and a single spring 
at the side and rear of the front wheels. The entire 
truck may be lifted from either or both axles by re- 
moving a bolt under the end of the axle. 

In a new motor truck by Goss the armature shaft 
runs lengthwise of the car and has two gears of cor- 
responding different diameters, with friction clutches 
on the shaft parallel to the armature shaft, on each 
end of which are beveled gears meshing into gears on 
the axle. On each end of the gear is a controlling 
stand with three handles, the upper of which controls 
the speed of the car by a rheostat, the middle one 
being the reversing lever and the lower one connect- 
ing to the two clutches. This lower lever gives op- 
portunity to get either power or speed. 

THE THOMSON-HOUSTON FREIGHT LOCOMOTIVE. 

The first electric freight locomotive built in this 
country has been made by the Thomson-Houston 
Electric Co., to pull freight l\ miles at Whitinsville, 
Mass. It is equipped with a motor, of the Thomson- 
Houston " C " type. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 263 

The power is communicated from the armature to 
the rear axle by double reduction gearing, and from 
the rear to the forward axle by parallel rods. 

The locomotive is square, with a platform for carry- 
ing loads, and cowcatchers and draw bars at each 
end. The power is conveyed over a trolley wire, from 
which it is taken by a universal trolley bar. The total 
weight of the locomotive is 43,000 pounds, and the 
speed, when delivering 100 horse power at the draw 
bar, is about five miles per hour — sufficient to pull six 
to eight heavily-loaded freight cars on a level. 

The motor consists of wrought iron field magnets, 
bolted to the magnetic yokes of cast wrought iron. 
One of these yokes carries the bearings which support 
that end of the motor on the axle, while the other 
yoke is spring-supported from the other axle. This 
keeps the gears in line and correct mesh, and provides 
spring support for the motor. 

The gearing consists of aluminium bronze pinions 
and cast wrought iron gear wheels, and runs in gear 
cases containing a supply of grease. 

On the intermediate shaft is heavily keyed a cast 
wrought iron brake -drum, covered with wood lagging. 
It is embraced by two half bands of steel, tightened 
upon it by the brake-drum lever, in the operating 
stand. 

The driving wheels are 42 inches in diameter and 
are steel-tired, the frame consists of two side plates 
in which are located the main axle bearings. 

Two cast iron end-plates, on which are cast the cow- 
catchers, are bolted to the side plates by through 
bolts, and carry the spring draw-bars and bumpers. 

The operating platform is at one end of the main 



264 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

platform, and is encased in a railing and covered with 
a protecting roof. On it are the levers for operating 
the controlling mechanism, the brake, and sand boxes ; 
the universal trolley bar also extends upward from 
the locomotive at this place. 

The controlling mechanism consists of two large 
rheostats of the Thomson-Houston railway type, so 
arranged with their contact shoes that no reversing 
switch is needed. The operator faces in the direction 
in which the locomotive is to go, and pushes the 
rheostat lever from him to make the locomotive go 
forward, and vice versa. A positive center lock is 
provided so that, in turning off the current, there is no 
danger of passing the neutral point on the rheostats, 
and so reversing the locomotive with the current on. 
The operator always pushes the brake lever from him 
to apply the brake. 

The bands are so arranged on the brake drum that 
the friction tends to tighten them up more upon the 
wood lagging, and so assists the operator in braking 
the train. 

A combined main switch, lightning arrester and 
fuse box is within easy reach of the man, so that he 
can instantly shut the current off by a movement of 
the hand. 

The motor is waterproof, the field spools having 
their wire inclosed and entirely sewed up in canvas 
bags, covered with waterproof paint. 

Some data on the locomotive are given below : 

Voltage of locomotive 500 volts 

Power 100 horse 

Speed on level track when developing above 

power 5 miles per hr. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 265 

Wheel base , 6' 4" 

Wheel diameter 42" 

Speed reduction between armature and 

axle 25 to 1 

Gage 4' 8J" 

Height above rail platform ,4' 4" 

Greatest length (at cowcatcher) 15' 9^" 

Greatest length of platform 12' 7J" 

Greatest width of platform , . 7' J" 

Approximate weight of motor 5400 lbs. 

Band brake on brake drum on intermediate 

shaft. 

The designing, building, and testing of this machine 
have been done under the supervision of J. P. B. Fiske, 
of the Lynn factory. 

OTHER NEW ELECTRIC MOTORS. 

A motor, which operates automatically at any 
desired speed or torque and with maximum efficiency 
under all conditions, is said to have been brought out 
by Leonard, who proposes the operation of electric 
motors under a new law, varying the voltage as the 
speed desired and varying the amperes as the torque 
desired; making the speed depend on the voltage only, 
independent of the current, and the torque depend on 
the current only, independent of the voltage. This 
law maybe followed by supplying the field of the motor 
from one source of electric energy and the armature 
from another, the E. M. F. of which may be varied. 
When the speed is fixed a fixed voltage will be nec- 
essary to conform to the law ; and the shunt motor 
will conform to the law. There will be a generator 
and a motor of the same size, their armatures being 
connected by two conductors. Their fields will be 



266 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

supplied from a small separate exciter in the shape of 
a shunt-wound dynamo, and the circuit leading to 
the field of the generator there will be a rheostat. If 
the generator is driven at a constant speed its E. M. 
F. will depend upon the field, which in turn will 
depend upon the amount of resistance in the rheostat 
in its field circuit. The strength of the motor field 
will be constant, being supplied by the constant E. 
M. F. exciter. The speed of the motor will depend 
on the E. M. F. supplied to its brushes, and that can be 
varied from zero to the maximum limit by varying 
the rheostat, which will preferably be placed beside 
the motor itself. The current will automatically 
vary in proportion to the torque ; the speed will vary 
directly as the voltage, and the efficiency will be 
constant and independent of the speed or of the 
torque. 

To operate an elevator from central station con- 
ductors of constant E. M. F., there will be a shunt- 
wound motor mechanically connected directly with a 
generator, the armature of which will be connected 
to the armature of the elevator motor. The field of 
the generator will be supplied from the central station 
conductors, but a loop will go up to the elevator car, 
where a rheostat and reversing switch will be placed, 
so that the E. M. F. of the generator can be varied and 
reversed at will. 

A mining motor intended to work in an explosive 
atmosphere is designed by Goolden, the whole arma- 
ture and brushes being inclosed in air-tight and dirt- 
tight coverings, which are sufficient to exclude the 
explosive mixture for many hours ; and it is claimed 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 267 

that before such mixture finds its way into the neigh- 
borhood of the armature or brushes, the condition of 
the atmosphere will have been noted by the attendant 
and the current cut off. It is said that the inclosed 
condition of the motor does not interfere with the 
necessary amount of ventilation to keep things cool. 

In a new governor for an arc motor a centrifugal 
governor attached to the armature causes any increase 
of speed to open the field magnetizing coils and to 
complete the circuit through the armature. With 
such a governor the motor will consume current only 
in proportion to the load. A further advantage 
claimed is that, by simply turning a hard rubber 
button, the speed may be adjusted to 500 turns per 
minute faster or slower than the regulation speed. 

A differential gear for electric elevators has a 
wheel which carries journal bushings for two little 
shafts, each one holding two sprocket pinions tightly 
keyed upon them. These pinions are connected 
with two sprocket wheels through four chains; one 
of the wheels is firmly fixed to the foundation and the 
other keyed to the drum shaft. The driving shaft 
is supported by two bearings, one of which is formed 
by the drum shaft. As the armature of the motor 
turns around once, the sprocket wheel travels over 
as many links of the chain as there are sprockets on 
the large wheel. 

APPLICATIONS OF ELECTRIC MOTORS. 

A railway bridge at Rush Street, Chicago, is operat- 
ed by an electric motor. The draw span is 240 feet 
by 59, with a 48-foot turn table, and weighs 800 tons. 



268 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

The current is taken from the lighting company's 
mains. A 25-horse power motor is used, and the cur- 
rent is of 500 volts ; and the normal current used by 
the motor is 35 amperes in turning the span. The 
old steam arrangement may be thrown in, if desired, 
in about three minutes. 

A combination, tried in Chicago, driving a steam 
pump by a water motor coupled directly to a Thom- 
son-Houston dynamo, is said to have given economy 
of fuel. The advantages claimed for this arrange- 
ment are that the system may be employed in pump- 
ing water during the clay and for light at night. 

Electricity is now used to drive portable drill 
presses, the motor being about four-tenths horse 
power for drilling holes up to one inch diameter in 
steel plates. The weight of the machine is 77 pounds. 
With four of these machines, the 60,000 holes in the 
protective deck of the Greek cruiser Hydra were 
drilled in sixty days. 

In the adaptation of electrical power to working 
drills, as in iron ship building, Sautter, Harle & Co. 
have elaborated a system of conductors, formed chiefly 
of bands of copper fixed to wooden supports laid 
along the whole length of the vessel ; drums large 
enough to carry a certain dength of conductor are 
fixed to supports furnished with two contacts, which 
bear upon the copper strips, and so establish the cir- 
cuit. In the general case of overhead distribution, or 
in the special instances of canalization for vessels, 
twin conductors 30 to 40 feet long end in a concrete 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 269 

block inserted into one or two openings, made in a 
regulating rheostat ; in the other opening is placed a 
connecting plug fixed to one of the ends of a double 
conductor, 15 to 20 feet long ; the other ends of 
this conductor being attached to the drill terminals. 
By rheostat the necessary difference of potential at 
the drill terminals, which varies according to the 
work, may be regulated ; and the current in the elec- 
tro-motor may be reduced when the tool is rotating, 
without doing any work. A portable rheostat of 
variable resistance, with a multiple commutator, per- 
mits the workman to start or stop the motor, and 
within certain limits to regulate the speed of the 
cutting tool. 

A drill 1.1 inch in diameter, working in soft steel, 
and having 704 down to 528 pounds pressure upon it, 
according to whether it was dull or sharp, took from 
four to nine minutes to drill soft steel to a depth of 
1.02 inches ; the voltage being 65 to 68, and the 
current in amperes 10. 

Electricity for working pile-drivers has been at- 
tracting some attention. Near Paris there was a mill 
which had an electric light plant that lay idle during 
the day, and which was put to work a motor, raising 
a 1100-pound ram 16 to 20 feet. A current of 63 
amperes and 100 volts was used, and the generator 
was about 330 feet distant. The conductor was a 
copper wire 0.2 inch in diameter. 

A static electric motor, devised by Wimshurst, 
consists simply of a glass disk mounted upon a 
vertical spindle, and bearing on one face a number 



270 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

of vertical sectors. The upper face of the disk is 
attached at two places by brushes connected to the 
poles of an influence machine ; and at right angles to 
these brushes there are two others connected by an 
equalizing rod. Under the rotating disk there is one 
which is stationary, having upon it tw x o tin-foil sec- 
tors of about 90 degrees, which are in connection with 
the influence machine poles. When the influence 
machine is turned, the glass disk rotates ; or it may 
be made to turn by presenting the knob of a Leyden 
jar to one of the motor poles. 

ELECTRIC MINING MACHINERY. 

In electric mining machinery a paper by Llewelyn 
B. and Claude W. Atkinson, read before the British 
Association of Civil Engineers, goes to show that 
electric power is destined to become an important 
factor in mining mechanics on account of : 

(1) The facility with which it can be used with 
machines which require to be moved about from 
time to time. 

(2) The great economy in first cost and reduced 
cost of working, owing to its efficiency being higher 
than that of compressed air or any other medium of 
power transmission. 

(3) The smaller cost of maintaining the cables as 
compared with piping, on shifting floors, in roadways, 
etc. 

The methods described by the authors of the paper 
were sufficient to obviate all objections t% the use of 
electric motors in coal mining, whether by excluding 
inflammable gases or by constructions which will allow 
all other safe combustion. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 271 

Experiments, trials, and practical work, extending 
over four years, show that : 

(1) Electrical pumps may be used with advantage 
and economy for mine draining ; 

(2) Electrical coal cutters can replace hand labor 
with saving in cost and increased production of 
coal ; 

(3) Electrical drilling machines are valuable in 
place of machinery worked by hand or by compressed 
air. 

An electric mining drill at Aspen, Col., is driven 
by a three-horse power Thomson-Houston motor, and 
in granite bores two inches per minute. In actual 
work in the mine it has averaged 1J to 2 inches per 
minute. It bored 4400 feet at an expense of 68 cents 
per foot. 

A solenoid coal-cutting machine has been made to 
enable undercutting with a machine concentrating its 
power upon a single reciprocating shaft carrying a 
chisel at its end. The apparatus weighs about 700 
pounds and makes from 300 to 350 strokes per minute, 
of five to six and one-half inches in length. The 
machine is mounted on wheels at about its balancing 
point, so that it is readily directed. 

ELECTRICAL TRANSMISSION OF POWER. 

The Oerlikon Works are to be driven from a dis- 
tance of 15 miles by an alternating current system, on 
the three-wire system. 

Three hundred horse power, got from the River 
Neckar, were delivered at the Frankfort Exhibition, 108 



272 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

miles distant, in the form of electrical energy, and with 
a loss of about 25 per cent. The first dynamo makes a 
combination of alternating currents, which are trans- 
formed into one of high pressure and carried through 
three bare copper wires, of not more than four mm. 
(about one-sixth of an inch) diameter, which are 
strung on ordinary telegraph poles. 

At Frankfort a successful test was made carrying 
power from Lauffen, with 27,000 volts difference of 
potential. 

Electric currents are now supplied to customers in 
London by the London Electric Supply Corporation, 
from Deptford. The pressure is 10,000 volts from 
there to the Grosvenor substation, and thence 100 
volts. The trunk mains and substation transformers 
have been tested to 17,000 volts. 

There is an electric power installation in the village 
of Oyonnax (Ain), using the water power of Char- 
mines, seven kilometers distant. The fall is 54 
meters and the available power 1750 horse. There is 
a force of 135,000 watts to be distributed among the 
lines and motors, and there are two secondary gener- 
ators, each of which can furnish 80,000 watts at 1000 
volts. These machines, which have an efficiencv of 92 
per cent., absorb 118 horse power each. They are 
driven by two receiving dynamos, the efficiency of 
which is 92 per cent., and which absorb 94,400 
watts each. The loss in the line is 10 per cent., so 
that the primary generators have to furnish a current 
of 209,777 watts. The generators have an efficiency 
of 92 per cent., and absorb 310 horse power. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 273 

The establishment at Charmines has three turbines 
with horizontal axes, each driving a dynamo by direct 
connection, one of the group serving as a reserve. 

The turbines have governors regulating their speed 
to two per cent. Their efficiency is 75 per cent. The 
two generators are coupled in tension, and each 
furnishes a current of 51 amperes at 2000 volts. 
The line, which is aerial, is calculated for a current 
of 51 amperes at 4000 volts, with a loss of ten per 
cent. 

The loss per kilometer is 27 volts, and the diameter 
of the end conductors is 6£ mm. and of the entire 
conductor 4^ mm. 

Messrs. Cuenod, Sautter & Co., have arranged an 
electric transmission to Oyonnax, concerning which 
we have the following details : The waterfall, that 
of the Oigrim, an affluent of the Ain, is of 54 meters, 
and the available power, 1750 horse. 

The generating station is in two groups, formed of 
a turbine with horizontal axes, coupled directly to a 
Thury dynamo of 150 horse, furnishing at 350 turns 
a current of 105,000 watts at a tension of 2000 volts. 
The two generators are coupled in tension. 

The line is 8 kilometers long and is made of three 
wires, two of 1^ mm. and one of \ mm. The loss is 
figured at ten per cent. At the receiving station there 
are two receiving machines of 120 horse power coupled 
in tension, and getting a current of 1800 volts. They 
act by direct connection upon two secondary generat- 
ors which furnish 600 amperes at 125 volts. The 
current supplies the village of Oyonnax by a three- 
wire circuit. The total duty is 76.2 per cent. 



274 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

DIRECT PRODUCTION OF ELECTRICITY. 

Edison's electric furnace is to have carbon or car- 
bonaceous material for the generating or soluble elec- 
trode of a generating cell, there being used with it as 
an active agent, oxides, salts, or compounds of elements 
by the decomposition of which the carbon or carbon- 
aceous material will be acted upon at high temperature. 
The cell is constructed and adopted for the application 
of heat externally thereto, and the conducting or igni- 
tion electrode of the cell is made of a substance which 
in the presence of carbon at high temperatures is not 
attacked to any great extent by the active agent em- 
ployed. A fusible oxide may be used, as oxide of 
lead, and a flux may or may not be added, according 
as the melting point of the oxide is high or low. In 
the simple form there is a cylinder of carbon resting 
on a fire clay block, and contained in an iron vessel 
with a fire clay cover, the space between the iron pot 
and the carbon containing the active agent. 

PRIMARY BATTERIES. 

A new primary battery by McMillan has for a nega- 
tive element a carbon plate placed in a porous cell, 
and the positive element is a zinc plate outside the 
same cell. The porous cell and the elements are with- 
in an outer containing jar. In the carbon plate are 
slots within which a depolarizer in cakes or plates may 
be arranged so as to virtually form part of the plate. 
The material preferred is manganese dioxide. The 
space between the carbon plate and the walls of the 
porous cell is nearly filled with small pieces of carbon, 
upon the upper surface of which a sealing material, 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 275 

having vents, is placed. The electro-motive force of 
the cell is quoted as 1.4 volts, the internal resistance 
0.3 ohm, giving 4.77 amperes on short circuit. After 
being short-circuited five minutes the electro-motive 
force was 1.2 volts and after 15 minutes one volt. 
After being allowed to rest a minute the cell gave 1.1 
volts on closing the circuit. When short-circuited 
for six hours the electro-motive force was reduced to 
0.7 volt, but after resting 16 hours the former electro- 
motive force was almost recovered. 

During the past year three cars on the N. Y. & 1ST. E. 
R. R. were fitted out with a plant for lighting them 
by primary batteries ; 10 to 12 lamps of 16 candles 
each being used for each ordinary car and 22 in the 
directors' car. The private car carries an equipment 
of 120 primary cells for a long run ; each set of 60 
cells supplying half the line. The lamps require 106 
volts at their terminals to bring them to 16 candle 
power. The cells are arranged so that they may be 
put in circuit in various manners so as to alter the 
voltage and the candle power of the lamps. Cells are 
beneath the car in a compartment large enough to con- 
tain the 60 cells, each of which is six by six by eight 
inches. The cells are in ten trays of six cells each. 
They are of zinc and carbon, the zinc weighing two 
and one-half pounds, and the carbon being in several 
small rods about the porous cup. It is claimed that 
35 hours' continuous lighting may be had from the 
cells before changing of the liquid is necessary. 

M. Trouve has shown to the French Academy of 
Sciences the design of a boat propelled by a sea-water 



276 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

battery. The plates of zinc and copper are placed 
under the boat like a keel, and the current drives a 
motor attached to a large wheel. The plates may be 
lowered or raised as required. Thomas Davenport, a 
Vermont blacksmith, made a similar suggestion, or 
design, fifty years ago. 

STORAGE BATTERIES. 

A new storage battery has light hollow plates 
molded in one piece and braced against buckling. 
The plate is open at the ends to permit the insertion 
of pencils or bars of active material, which are made 
under hydraulic pressure ; then the ends of the 
plates are turned up. The separation and support is 
by a rubber grate one-eighth inch wide at top, be- 
veling to three-eighths inch at the base. 

L. James has brought out an accumulator having 
for positive plates lead alloyed with one per cent, of 
cadmium, and for the negative, lead with two per 
cent, of antimony. The plates have in them circular 
holes in which is placed the active material, which 
for the positive plates is 8.5 parts of minium, one of 
litharge, 0.40 of carded asbestos, and 0.1 of powdered 
carbon. That for the negative plates is 9.40 parts of 
litharge, 0.10 of sulphur, 0.40 of asbestos, and 0.10 
of powdered carbon. 

The Waddell-Entz storage battery is of the alka- 
line type, having for its two metallic elements copper 
and zinc, and for the electrolyte caustic potash. 
The zinc is deposited on iron electrodes, while the 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 277 

copper is very porous and capable of ready oxida- 
tion. The solution of the cell is really zincate of iron. 
The action on charging is to deposit metallic zinc on 
the iron electrode, which latter is usually in the form 
of a tinned gauze, and the oxides the porous copper. 
On closed circuit the zinc is dissolved with the forma- 
tion of potassium zincate and the oxide of "copper is 
reduced. The porous partition is placed between the 
two elements, ordinarily made of parchment paper. 
The electromotive force of such a couple is eight to 
to nine volts. The porous copper has a permanent 
backing of dust copper that is entirely unaffected in 
the action of the cell and keeps up the conductivity. 
There is a dense copper coil surrounded by very porous 
copper, wholly enclosed in a textile covering. The 
battery weighs only 55 to 60 pounds per horse power 
hour stored. 

Six accumulator cars are running from The Hague 
to Scheveningen, three miles, making 12 miles per 
hour, including stops. Each loaded car weighs 16 
tons, being 32 feet long, carrying 68 passengers, the 
battery of accumulators weighing four tons. The 
cars have two swinging trucks of two axles each, only 
one truck being driven, and its wheels being coupled 
together. The axles are connected to the motor by 
solid gearing, and the whole weight is carried by the 
axles. The motor is supplied by carbon brushes from 
a battery of 192 Julien accumulators weighing 40 
pounds each, and which when charged provide current 
for 45 miles. The accumulators are in eight boxes 
or drawers weighing half a ton each under the seats. 
There are switches and resistances to vary the speed. 



278 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

Storage batteries have been compared by Gisbert 
Kapp of London with other sources of power, with 
this conclusion : that coal can be carried 1300 miles 
by rail by the consumption of ten per cent, of the 
energy stored in it, while accumulators can be carried 
only 26 miles. A load of 3£ tons of passengers re- 
quires 2| tons of batteries to move it. In practice it 
is found that the entire charge of the storage battery 
is expended in from 30 to 60 miles. In Philadelphia 
a car weighing 10 tons requires at times a power of 17 
horses, and a mean expenditure of 5.6 horse power. 

An English inventor believes that he can run clocks 
by natural electricity from the earth. The earth's 
currents vary considerably, but by an automatic ar- 
rangement fixed by the pendulum, he can keep time, 
he asserts, to within one minute in a year. 

ELECTRIC MEASURING. 

In a new electric meter by Perry the principle is to 
use an electro-motor, and let its motion be retarded 
by forces proportionate to the velocity, such forces 
being fluid friction when the motion is very slow, 
and resistance due to Foucault or eddy currents. 
This requires excellent pivoting and the avoidance of 
all solid friction of brushes or rubbing contacts. 
The armature is a cylindric copper vessel, closed at its 
upper end except for a few holes. It is like an in- 
verted claret glass, and is immersed in mercury, in 
which it rotates ; receiving current from a heavy 
ring of copper, the current passing through the mer- 
cury to the lower edge of the armature, passing in 
a cylindric sheet upward through the armature, to 



EECOED OF SCIENTIFIC PEOGEESS. 279 

a fixed tube dipping in the mercury. The armature 
is coated with varnish everywhere except where it 
receives and gives off current, at which places it is 
nickel-plated. A phosphor-bronze spindle gives mo- 
tion to the counting arrangement, and is in two 
pieces, so that the upper part may be insulated. An 
imperfectly constructed instrument started up with 
0.2 ampere, from which place to 100 amperes there 
was but one point, 10 amperes, at which the error was 
as great as one per cent. There is nothing to alter 
with time, and the temperature errors balanced them- 
selves. 

The Freres propose a recording electric meter 
which measures the current every 15 seconds and 
registers the reading, producing a total which may be 
read off as kilowatt hours. 

A statoscope has been produced by the Freres, 
for use with their recording electric meter, so sensitive 
that it showed if it were lifted from the floor to the 
table, and vice versa. 

The Teague electricity meter, made by the Acme 
Electric Works, of London, consists of an electric 
motor of simplest form, its armature consisting of a 
hollow cylinder of non-magnetic metal, placed in an 
intense magnetic field formed by boring a hole in the 
end of one pole piece of the magnet and letting the 
opposite pole piece extend through the hole. The 
current is led to and from the armature by two mer- 
cury contact troughs, one of which is connected to 
the spindle, and the other to the lower edge of the 



280 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

armature. The armature is geared to a train of 
wheels carrying pointers ; and the result is read in 
Board of Trade units without constants or multi- 
pliers. 

A new watt-meter brought out by Swinburn is for 
doing away with the trouble with ordinary watt- 
meters with alternating currents, that if the pressure 
and current are not stopped, as is the case when an 
alternate pressure is applied to a resistance, such a 
meter reads too low ; but if a pressure is applied to an 
inductive current, the reading may be high. In the 
new meter the moving coil has but few turns, 
and these are wound on a light mica former. The 
coil is held by top and bottom stretched wires. Ex- 
ternal resistances are supplied, being wound with the 
alternate layers right and left handed, so that the 
time constant of the fine wire circuit is made sensibly 
equal to zero. Readings are taken by a torsion head 
in the usual way, but if measurements of minute pow- 
ers such as hundredths of a watt, a mirror is used. 

A pressure indicator consists of a solenoid, through 
which moves an armature, controlled by the attrac- 
tion of the solenoid, opposed by gravity. It is so 
arranged with a circuit-closing device that when the 
E. M. F. rises above the standard at which the instru- 
ment is set, a red danger-lamp burns ; if the E. M. F. 
falls below the standard, a green lamp is lighted. A 
hard rubber plate carrying the solenoid and circuit 
closer is made to rotate upon the base, so that the 
instrument may be set for any E. M. F. with a stand- 
ard volt-meter. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 281 

CURRENT TRANSFORMER. 

In the Lehmeyer current transformer the high ten- 
sion current flows to the armature coil, wound upon the 
main armature, while the secondary coil, besides sur- 
rounding the main armature, also passes around the 
larger armature. Acting on this latter there is a 
field magnet upon which circulates the secondary 
main current. The current in this coil is proportion- 
ate to the difference of current of the main or larger 
armature ; the additional electro-motive force of the 
secondary or smaller armature is also proportionate to 
it. The compound magnetic field is separated from the 
main field by brass insulation. The secondary arma- 
ture and the field magnet belonging to it are thus sepa- 
rated from the main magnet. Compared with motor 
dynamos a transformer of this construction has the 
advantage of reduced size and cost. 

AUTOMATIC CURRENT REGULATOR. 

The Tomlinson automatic regulator for electric 
lighting by alternating currents is arranged to do 
away with the trouble of having all the transformers 
of a system in the circuit all of the twenty-four 
hours. The transformers are arranged in five groups, 
each one containing double the number in the 
group before it. They are thrown in or out by a 
switch moved by weights, which are wound up once 
a week. There is a double relay in the secondary 
circuit of the fixed transformers. When the current 
exceeds full load a contact is made, and a small current 
sent through a magnet on the apparatus along a wire 
to the central station, where it passes through a chok- 



282 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

ing coil to a bell. The attendant then puts down a 
switch, which short-circuits the choking coil to the bell, 
and allows enough current to pass to actuate a 
magnet controlling the mechanism in the apparatus 
and put in a sufficient number of switches. The 
magnet for taking out transformers is worked in a 
similar way by the other part of the relay, which acts 
when the current in the fixed transformers falls to less 
than half load. 

LIGHTNING GUARD. 

In a new lightning guard for electric light installa- 
tions the current enters at one end of the axis, circu- 
lates through two highly-insulated thick wire coils, and 
leaves by the other end of the axis ; but in so doing 
it has passed three pairs of brass collars which clamp 
between them a square of mica coated with tin foil, 
the corners of which come very near to an outer metal 
case connected with the ground. When lightning 
attempts to follow the circuit, it splits off from one or 
the other of the corners of the first tin foil to earth, 
thereby striking a momentary arc, which is destroyed 
the next instant by the fusion of that corner of the tin 
foil. The other corners are ready for a future oc- 
casion. The air gap inserted between the brass collars 
and the outer case must depend on the voltage of the 
installations and length of the arc expected. 

PROTECTOR FOR ELECTRIC APPARATUS. 

In a new protector for telephone and other elec- 
tro-receptive instruments, the main feature is the man- 
ner in which the fuse is melted by the generation of 
heat in a small coil of comparatively high resistance 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 283 

wire, which is wound upon one end of the fuse and 
which is part of the circuit. The coil is of German 
silver wire, of sufficient size and length to produce 
heat enough to melt the fuse upon the passage of any 
current at which it may be deemed desirable to have 
the line. For ordinary use at subscribers' stations 
they are wound to open the line at 0.4 ampere. 
The device is a protection against the " sneak " 
current so destructive to electrical apparatus con- 
taining electro-magnetic coils of fine wire, as well 
as against heavy or abnormal currents. 

SAFETY DEVICE FOR ELECTRIC WIRES. 

A safety device for electric wires has at the end 
of the wire a plate which is inserted in a slide at the 
end of wire from the tie or supporting wire which is 
slotted to receive it, thus forming the connection and 
holding it in position unless the wire should break. 
In this case springs would draw this plate out and 
away from the other, allowing the trolley wire to drop 
down, thus breaking the connection and rendering 
the broken wire perfectly harmless until it is repaired. 

ARC LIGHT CUT-OUT. 

In a new arc light cut-out the circuit is always 
closed about the lamp before it is dropped from the 
hood, thus avoiding the possibility of an open circuit. 
The cords for raising and lowering the lamp are 
relieved of weight when the latter is in position. 
Both current and sustaining wires lead to the top of 
the hood, the danger and unsightliness of swinging 
wires is overcome, the lamps may be lowered safely 



284 RECORD OF scientific progress. 

among other wires, and the cut-out is said to be sleet- 
proof. 

MICA INSULATION FOR WIRES. 

A mica insulation suitable for all sizes of wire has 
been produced. It consists of three leaves, the tw T o 
outer ones being of paper and the inner one a very- 
thin film of mica. The material is prepared in large 
sheets, then cut into ribbons and wound upon spools 
which are placed upon a specially-designed machine, 
which wraps the wire with the insulation as quickly 
as could be done with cotton thread. The wire may 
be afterward coated with rubber if desired. 

NEW INSULATION PIERCER. 

An insulation-piercer has been brought out, per- 
mitting a covered wire to be pierced for the purpose 
of making contact. There is a clamp, and a screw 
ending in a sharp steel point. The hole left is so 
small that a pinch closes it up, and even the smallest 
wires are reached without danger of slipping or break- 
ing. 

NEW MODE OF HOUSE- WIRING. 

A new system of house-wiring, brought out by the 
Interior Conduit and Insulation Company, consists in 
fitting the building with continuous tubes of insulat- 
ing material, through which the wires are drawn. 
The tubes are of paper soaked in a 460° F. bath of 
bituminous material. 

AUTOMATIC ELECTRIC VALVE. 

An automatic electric valve for steam heating 
systems has a thermostat on the wall above the radiator 
and connected by three wires with a valve and with 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 285 

an electric battery. When the temperature of the 
room rises above the degree for which the thermostat 
i& set, a circuit is closed through the thermostat ; 
electro-magnets are energized, and attract their arma- 
ture, and a motor is started which closes the valve. 

ELECTRIC TIME STAMP. 

An electric time-stamp, the works of which take 
up less than two and one half by three inches, by 
three inches high, prints the year, month, day, hour, 
and minute clearly and distinctly in a space the size 
of a silver quarter. The machine automatically 
changes the months and hours and at midnight 
changes the day. It is operated by a simple pressure 
instead of by a blow. It may be operated on open 
or closed circuits by battery or by continuous or 
alternating electric light circuit ; and is adapted to 
run on any signal or time circuit where the impulse 
is given once a minute. 

ELECTRIC CAR HEATER. 

An electric car heater consists of a thin plate of 
cast iron, two feet long, three inches wide, and one- 
eiffhth inch thick, to one side of which the resistance 
wires are attached, but insulated therefrom by an 
enamel coating, which prevents consumption by elec- 
trotysisof the resistance wires. This plate is fastened 
to the support of the car just back of the passengers' 
feet, and is surrounded by grate-work, protecting 
the clothing but not obstructing radiation. 

An electrical cloth-cutting device has been invented 
by Weyburn, of Chicago. The cloth is cut by a 



286 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS.* 

circular wheel, driven through a flexible shaft by an 
electric motor running along a guide rail over the 
cutting table. 

ELECTRIC TELETHERMOMETER. 

Chibout has devised a metallic thermometer that 
can transmit its readings to any distance. The trans- 
mitter is a very stiff bar of very expansive metal, 
fixed at one end of a marble support, the other con- 
nected with a lever to magnify the variations. To 
this lever is attached a second bar similar to the first, 
and the effects of each are added to the first bar, in 
order to be transmitted to another lever like the first. 
The connecting points of the bars and levers are flat 
steel springs inserted in the pieces to be connected, 
thus suppressing play and friction. A rack mounted 
upon the second lever gears with a pinion the axis of 
which carries a needle, which shows upon a dial the 
different variations due to the expansion of the bars. 
Upon the second lever is a needle with a contact 
which moves before a sector of thin copper plates, in- 
sulated from each other and reproducing the grada- 
tions of the needle-dial. There is a special circuit 
for each gradation, or rather a single circuit 
having its intensity for each gradation modified by 
a resistance coil. The receiver consists of a circular 
solenoid, in the center of which there is a movable 
axis carrying a needle and a small bar of soft iron, 
opposite which there is a stationary bar. Starting 
the current causes these bars to repel each other to a 
degree corresponding with the intensity of the cur- 
rent, which is proportioned to the degree of motion 
pf the needle at the sending instrument, 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 287 

ELECTRIC PYROMETER. 

Collender has produced an electrical pyrometer in 
the form of a platinum resistance consisting of a fine 
wire welded to leads of comparatively low resistance. 
As the electrical resistance of this wire will vary with 
the temperature, the temperature may be measured 
by the resistance. It is said to be an improvement 
on Siemens' similar instrument, by reason of the 
greater purity of the metal and its better protection 
and treatment. 

ELECTRIC PHOTOGRAPHIC TIMER. 

An electric photographic timing device, for photo- 
engravers and others, is designed to automatically 
open and shut the lens tube of the camera, and to give 
such a length of exposure to the plates as is determined 
by the setting of a movable contact piece, on the peri- 
phery of a clock dial, at the number corresponding to 
a number of seconds required ; such contact lying in 
the path of a contact arm driven by clockwork. 
When the dial hand or arm comes in contact with the 
movable contact piece, the electric circuit is closed 
through a magnet arranged within the camera for 
operating the drop shutter. 

NEW MAGNETO-BELL. 

A novel magneto-bell has a Siemens armature 
mounted in the field of a permanent magnet, and 
carrying the bell hammer. The armature coil being 
traversed by alternating currents, successive reversals 
of polarity occur, causing the hammer to vibrate 



288 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

vigorously through a wide angle. The efficiency of 
such a bell is apparent, as the armature poles are 
always near the field poles. 

ELECTRIC SOLDERING IRON. 

An electric soldering iron consists of a copper tip 
like those ordinarily used on soldering irons, and 
having a heating resistance of German silver wire 
coiled about the shanks that connect this tip with the 
handle. The tip and handle are fitted to screw on, 
the resistances are covered with a copper cylinder still 
further to lead the heat to the tip and to protect the 
wire from injury. The insulation is of mica and 
asbestos, so packed around, the resistance coil as to pre- 
vent short-circuiting, and to insulate the coils both from 
each other and from the body of the iron. 

ELECTRIC EXERCISING MACHINE. 

An electric exercising machine has in a wooden case 
a small magneto machine, which is driven when the 
operator pulls on the handle which is attached to the 
box. The straps attached to the handles pass around 
pulleys on the magneto, and by suitable connections 
the current is passed into the body of the operator, 
who thus gets both physical exercise and electric 
stimulation. 

ELECTROLYTIC COPPER PIPES. 

The Elmore Copper Depositing Company at Leeds, 
England, is making pipes and cylinders of copper, 
and coating hydraulic rams with copper, by electroly- 
sis. When it is desired to make a tube, an iron 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 289 

mandrel the size of the tube bore is placed horizontally 
in a tank containing a solution of sulphate of copper 
in water, with a percentage of sulphuric acid. Before 
being placed in the bath, the mandrel receives a thin 
coat of copper by the ordinary cyanide process. The 
mandrel is caused to rotate in the bath by chain gear. 
It forms a cathode, while the anode consists of granu- 
lated copper spread on a perforated tray on the bottom 
of the bath. The burnishing is accomplished by 
an agate held in a suitable holder and pressed against 
the work by elastic bands, tracing a screw line on the 
tube. It takes one week to make a tube one-eighth 
inch thick, the rate being independent of the diameter. 
The current density averages 16 amperes per square 
foot of cathode surface. A 12 by 2-foot tank turns 
out one 18-inch tube per week of 168 hours, or 275 
to 280 pounds of copper tube per week. 

ELECTRICAL PURIFICATION OF WATER. 

In the employment of electricity in the purification 
of water, hydrated oxide of lead is placed in a filter 
press traversed by the water to be purified, and pre- 
cipitates all the carbonates, sulphates, and chlorides. 
To make the oxide of lead cheaply, a current of 
electricity is passed between lead electrodes of large 
surface plunged in a solution of sodium nitrate in 
water. Caustic soda is formed in the negative com- 
partment, nitric acid at the positive pole, from which 
it dissolves a certain quantity of lead and forms lead 
nitrate. After a certain time, the two solutions 
are run into a vat where they are mixed ; the soda 
precipitates the hydrated oxide of lead, and itself forms 



290 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

sodium nitrate ; the liquid is then filtered, and the 
sodium nitrate solution which runs through the filter 
again subjected to electrolyzation. 

ELECTRICAL IRON SMELTING. 

In a new process of smelting iron by electricity the 
metal is placed in a cupola that has electrical connec- 
tions, and a strong current passing through it forms 
arcs at each electrode and produces great heat, which 
melts the metal. The molten metal flows into a 
receptacle below the cupola, and is thence drawn off. 

SILVERING IRON BY ELECTRICITY. 

A new process for silvering iron consists in pick- 
ling the objects in hot dilute hydrochloric acid, then 
removing to a solution of mercury nitrate, and con- 
necting with the zinc pole of a Bunsen element ; gas. 
carbon or platinum serving as the other pole. It is 
rapidly covered with a film of mercury, when it is 
removed, washed, and put in a bath to be silvered. 
By heating to 300° C. (572° F.), the mercury is 
driven off and the silver firmly fixed to the iron. 
To save silver, the wire can be first covered with 
tin. 

Groth, of London, has devised a process of tanning 
by electricity ; a current of electricity from a dynamo 
passing through the skins as they are suspended in 
the tan liquor. 

Electricity has been employed in improving the 
keeping properties of wine. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 291 

Electrotype copies of the dead may be made by 
painting the skin with a concentrated solution of 
nitrate of silver, reducing this with vapors of white 
phosphorus dissolved in sulphide of carbon, then put- 
ting in a bath. 

A patent has been taken out in France for the 
.electric incineration of human remains. 

ELECTRIC KITES. 

Experiments with electric kites, near Boston, 
have resulted in measuring the electric potentiality 
of the atmosphere at every step ; measuring cloud 
heights, velocity of wind, etc. The average height 
of the nimbus clouds was found to be 412 meters, 
cumulus 1558, false cirrus 6500, cirro-stratus 9652, 
and cirrus 10,135. The average velocity for the cir- 
rus was found to be, in this place, 82 miles an hour 
— twice that found at Upsala. The extreme velocity 
was 133 miles an hour. Below 500 meters the wind 
velocity was found to be less than cloud velocity; 
above that, excess of the cloud velocity increased up 
to 1000 meters, then decreased until 1700 meters, 
after which it steadily increased. 

THE SCHISEOPHONE. 

The schiseophone is an apparatus invented by 
Captain de Place, of Paris, for detecting internal 
flaws in metal. It consists of a small metallic tap- 
per, worked by hand, and connected with a telephone 
with a microphone interposed in circuit. By this 
means a flaw may not only be discovered but 
located, 



292 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

• THE FLUVIOGRAPH. 

The fluviograph is a French instrument for record- 
ing, af any desired distance, by electricity, variations 
in the height of water level of a water course, and 
giving timely warning. It consists of a float about 
an inch in diameter, rising and falling in a vertical 
tube in communication with the stream. This float 
transmits its motion to a wheel, with one meter cir- 
cumference, which gears with another of such pro- 
portions that every five centimeters of vertical dis- 
placement of the float corresponds to the interval of 
two teeth on the smaller wheel. An electric contact 
permits sending an electric current through a wire at 
every such displacement. This instrument is not 
new, but it is desirable to draw attention to it for 
American use. 

A magnet for lifting pig iron from the pig bed, 
and made by the Thomson-Houston Motor Co., 
raises 7200 pounds. Is is like a bell, with nearly 
vertical sides, standing 20 inches high, and measur- 
ing 24 inches across the bottom. 

ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE HEADLIGHTS. 

The C. H. & D. R. R. Co. has in use on its line 
twelve electric headlights, concerning which its 
Superintendent of Motive Power says: "We have 
had several of these lights in use during the past two 
years, and to date have given us the most perfect 
satisfaction. Small objects can be discerned clearly 
during the night one mile ahead of the engine. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 293 

Obstructions on the track of any kind larger than 
a cat, bridges on fire, and things of this kind can 
readily be detected by the engineer in time to stop 
his train before reaching the obstruction. The cost 
of maintaining these lights is about one cent per 
light for the single carbon used, There is no question 
in my mind but that these lights are a very necessary 
article for the prevention of accidents of all kinds 
after night. This headlight is said to have about 
2500 candle power and to show objects on the track 
from half a mile to 2| miles distant. A water tank 
was sighted at a mile distant. The carbons last 18 
hours and cost but 18 cents per hundred. 

ELECTRIC SHIP LOG. 

Granville's electric ship-log has no special battery ; 
the log, the iron hull of the ship, and the ocean, form- 
ing one. A portion of the log is of zinc, which pro- 
vides one element. The log is watertight. There 
are but two moving parts : a rotating head and a 
small internal w^orm wheel. The sea water has access 
to all working parts. The tow line is a braided tanned 
netting twine, inside of which there are copper wires 
wound spirally and joined at each end. It may be 
coiled and handled by any sailor just like any 
other line. 

ELECTRIC THIEF DETECTOR. 

The inventions for preventing thefts from show 
cases are numerous, and electricity is now being 
brought into use in connection therewith. A Minne- 
sota man has in the bottom of his show case a number 



294 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

of metallic strips, and the tray has spring clips for 
holding the articles to be exhibited, the clips being 
connected electrically and held open by the articles. 
The tray has contact points bearing on the metallic 
strips, which are in the circuit of a battery, and an 
alarm bell. When an article is removed from any 
one of the clips the contact points come together, 
close the circuit, and give an alarm. If an article be 
removed when the tray is out of the case the alarm is 
sounded when the tray is put back. 

EFFECTS OF ELECTRICITY ON PLANT LIFE. 

The results of the experiment in the agriculture 
station of Cornell University go to show that the 
influence of the electric arc lamp on greenhouse plants 
is to promote assimilation, hasten growth and matu- 
rity, produce natural flavors and colors in fruits, and 
even to intensify colors in flowers ; and sometimes to 
increase the production of flowers. 

" The forcing house was divided by a board parti- 
tion, one-half being subjected to natural conditions of 
light and darkness, and the other to sunlight by day 
and the light of a lamp of 2000-candle power during 
the whole, or part, of the night. Leaf plants, such as 
lettuce and spinach, ran to seed before edible leaves 
were formed, when the lamp burned all night. Plants 
near the lamp died soon after coming up. Of the 
entire crops those in the normal house were twice as 
great as those in the light compartment. The influ- 
ence of the light on the productiveness and colors of 
flowers varied with different species and with different 
colors of flowers of the same species. When six 
varieties of tulips bloomed in the light compartment 



BEC0RD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 295 

their colors were deeper and richer, but the colors lost 
their intensity after a few days. They had longer 
stems and larger leaves. Verbenas growing near the 
lamp were injured, being stunted and with short-lived 
flowers. Scarlet, dark red, blue, and pink flowers 
within three feet of the lamp soon turned to a grayish 
white. Petunias grew taller and more slender, 
bloomed earlier and more profusely. Radishes were 
earlier, but smaller. Some of the experiments showed 
that injury followed the use of the light when the 
plantlet was losing its support from the seed, and that 
good results followed the use of it later." 

The experiments show that plants do not need 
periods of darkness for rest. " There is every reason, 
therefore, to suppose that the electric light can be 
profitably used in the growing of plants"; and the 
further inference is " that if the electric light makes 
plants to assimilate during the night and does not 
interfere with growth, it must produce plants of great 
size and marked precocity." 

Experiments in France go to show that a row of 
hemp subjected to the influence of the electric current, 
produced stalks 18 inches taller than those not elec- 
trified ; 2.2 pounds of potatoes planted in the path of 
the current produced 21 times their weight of very 
large and healthy tubers, while the un electrified 
patches gave only 12^ fold, of medium size tubers. 
Electrified tomatoes became ripe eight days before 
the others. Barat has found that if a quantity of 
manure is placed near the positive pole, its constitu- 
ent parts are carried toward the negative pole, and 
their effects make themselves felt around a distance of 
some yards. 



296 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

THE PORTELECTRIC SYSTEM. 

The United States Portelectric Co. has been 
organized with the intention of furnishing portelectric 
transmission between New York and Brooklyn. The 
carrier is a hollow wrought iron cylinder with pointed 
ends, 12 inches in diameter and 12 cubic feet capacity, 
capable of carrying 20,000 letters. It is to be sup- 
ported on a single rail, propelled by an electric current, 
passing through hollow helices of insulated copper 
wire every 10 feet. The wheels of the carrier auto- 
matically cut in circuit the helices just in front, and 
cut out all those back of it. Experiments on a track 
of this kind in Dorchester lead the projectors to 
claim a possible speed of 150 to 200 miles per hour. 

ELECTRIC CARRIAGE. 

A new electrical carriage, by Morrison, derives its 
motive power from 24 accumulator cells under the 
seats, the motor being on the rear axle. The winding 
of the motor is such that reversal of the current 
causes the carriage to run backward just as well as 
forward. 

THE ALTERNATING CURRENT. 

Siemens & Halske, of Berlin, invited the members 
of the Electro-technische Verein to an exhibition of 
20,000-volt alternating currents. The tension was 
conducted through wires of only 0.2 mm. (.08 inch) 
diameter to a battery of 200 one-hundred-volt incan- 
descent lamps connected in series. An ordinary Sie- 
mens electric light cable being inserted in the cir- 
cuit, broke down at 15,000 volts. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 297 

Prof. Elihu Thomson has contributed a valuable 
note on the physiological effect of alternating cur- 
rents of very high frequency, going to show that 
they are less dangerous than those at the lower rate 
now in vo^ue. 

INTERESTING ELECTRIC HEAT MOTOR. 

Bidwell has made a heat engine which depends for 
its action upon the fact that nickel is magnetic at 
ordinary temperatures, but not above 300 Q C. A slip 
of this metal is fastened to a disk of copper hung by 
two strings. On one side of the metals is a magnet 
with which the nickel is kept in contact. Heating 
the nickel with a lamp, it becomes non-magnetic and 
falls off, the pendulum making a swing. Passing 
through the air cools it, and it becomes again at- 
tractable by the magnet, and so on, as long as the 
source of heat is kept up. 

OZONE MAKING BY ELECTRICITY. 

The commercial manufacture of ozone by electricity 
has become quite common. The best known ap- 
paratus consists of an inner metal tube surrounded by 
an outer one. The top and the bottom of the metal 
tube are closed and the space between the covers 
filled with cooling water kept in circulation. Above 
the top and below the lower cover there are holes 
through which the gas to be treated is drawn from 
the upper space into the space between the dielectric 
cylinder wall and the inner metal tube. Thence it 
passes to the lower end and out. The dielectric cyl- 
inder is of hard rubber and celluloid. Continuous 



298 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

currents interrupted by a special rotating commutator 
at 600 breaks per second has given better results 
than alternating currents having only 50 to 100 re- 
versals per second. Up to 4000 volts, using a glass 
tube, no ozone is liberated. With two horse power, 
2.4 milligrams of ozone may be produced per 
second. 



PHOSPHORUS MAKING BY ELECTRICITY. 

The manufacture of phosphorus by electricity by 
the Readman Parker process dispenses with the 
use of sulphuric acid for decomposing the phosphate 
of lime, and of fire clay retorts for distilling the dried 
mixture of phosphoric acid and carbon. The raw 
materials, carefully mixed, are put in the furnace and 
the electric current turned on, the vapors and gases 
from the furnace passing to large copper condensers, 
the first of which contains hot and the second cold 
water ; finally passing into the air. As the phos- 
phorus forms it distills from the mixture and the res- 
idue forms a liquid slag at the bottom of the furnace. 
Fresh phosphorus-yielding material is added at the 
top. The operation may be continued for days. 
The charges are native phosphates without any pre- 
vious chemical treatment ; the only addition being 
the carbon to effect their reduction. The crude phos- 
phorus is tolerably pure and is readily refined in the 
ordinary way. The furnaces yield 1\ gross cwt. 
per day ; the engines of the works will yield 1200 
indicated horse power. The dynamo gives 400 units 
of electrical energy, equal to 536 indicated horse 
power. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 299 

ELECTRIC DENTISTRY. 

Electricity has been tried successfully in London 
for tooth extraction. There is a Ruhmkorff coil with 
a commutator of extreme sensitiveness. One of the 
handles of the battery is connected with the negative 
pole ; the positive is divided into two, so that one of 
the divisions is connected with the handle, and a wire 
from the other is screwed into the handle of the tooth 
forceps. When the patient takes hold of the handle 
the current is gradually increased in intensity until he 
can bear no more ; then while the forceps are being 
introduced the current is turned off for a second, and 
on again. The rest is the same as without electricity. 
The patient experiences no pain. The theory is that 
electricity travels over the nerve at the rate of 420 
vibrations per second, while pain travels from the 
tooth to the brain in -fa second. The electricity gets 
to the brain first, and keeps the line for itself, crowd- 
ing out the pain. 

Dentists are said to have found that the electric 
light enables them to find cavities which were imper- 
ceptible by daylight ; particularly that form of caries 
known as white decay. 

The long proposed system of stopping runaway 
horses by an electric current through the bit has been 
tried in Chicago, and, it is said, with success. 

An electric welding machine, for making chain 
cables, has been produced ; two links being welded at 
once. 



300 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

The electro-magnet is now used very considerably 
in high surgery, as for extracting chips of iron from 
the eyeball. In many cases it has proved the only 
means of preserving sight. 

Electric wands are now used in bee-taming. 

Prof. J. J. Thomson has made vacuum tubes without 
electrodes, but surrounded by coils of insulated con- 
ductors and connected with Leyden jar batteries. 
Whenever the jars are discharged through the sur- 
rounding conductors, the tubes glow with a color de- 
pending upon the gas with which they are filled. 

The International Congress of Electricians at 
Frankfort, have recommended that the names of the 
electric units, ampere, coulomb, farad, joule and ohm, 
volt and watt be abbreviated by their initials. 

Dewey proposes a floor or floor mat that can be 
electrically heated by a low tension current ; being 
arranged if desired so that the feet will not touch the 
conductors. 



TELEGRAPHY. 



The past year has added but little to the science 
of telegraphy, compared with what has been done 
for it by other years gone by ; but there have been 
advances in the direction of multiple transmission, 
under circumstances hitherto considered unfavorable 
to their undertaking ; and conveniences have been 
added, in the way of calls and answer boxes, and in 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 301 

lightning arresters, etc., which have redeemed the 
year from any charge of having yielded unprofitably 
to intelligent research. 

THE PHONOPORE. 

The phonopore is an apparatus intended to serve as 
an adjunct means of telegraphing over a line already 
in use ; and it permits an ordinary telegraph line to 
be duplexed, for the transmission of two messages in 
the same direction or in opposite directions. The 
system consists in sending rapidly vibrating induced 
currents over a telegraph Hue already in use, and then 
employing these currents to operate a special relay 
working an ordinary Morse or other receiver. So far 
as the vibratory currents are concerned, the line is 
completely insulated, the induction being produced 
by a special coil in a circuit containing a vibrator. The 
transmitter consists of a circuit containing (1) the 
phonopore; (2) a vibrating rod to produce the oscilla- 
tions of current, and (3) a Morse key. The phonopore 
itself consists of a primary coil built up of a number 
of distinct coils connected in multiple arc, and all 
wound upon a sheet iron core ; around this multiple 
helix is a pair of secondary coils insulated from each 
other, one end of each being insulated, the other being 
connected respectively to line and to earth. Depress- 
ing the key starts the reed vibrating, and causes on 
the line very rapid induced electrical oscillations, 
which, being of but small intensity, produce no effect 
on the ordinary telegraphic apparatus. The vibrating 
reed is tuned to a very high pitch, and forms a pro- 
longation of the armature proper. At the receiving 
station there is a soft iron core, upon which are 



302 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

two helices, one connected through the line with the 
transmitter, and the other being part of the local cir- 
cuit, including a battery, galvanometer, and relay. 
The current also passes through a contact formed by 
a reed tuned to the same period as the transmitter, 
and another contact piece supported on a weaker vi- 
brating spring of slow period. When the reed is at 
rest, the contact between it and the vibrating springs 
is closed, the local circuit magnetizes the core, and 
the reed is brought into equilibrium. If a pulsating 
current, having a period synchronous with that of the 
reed, comes in, the reed will be made to vibrate vio- 
lently ; this will cause it to strike contact pieces on 
a weak spring forming a part of the local circuit, 
thus breaking this circuit and throwing into action 
the relay, which, in turn, sends its signal to an ordi- 
nary telegraphic sounder. A single impulse, particu- 
larly if of period not the same as that of the reed, will 
not work the receiver. Experiments in England have 
given good results, over 100 miles of line, with a 
Morse printer, over a line that was doing a busy rail- 
way traffic. 

A NEW TELEGRAPH CALL. 

A new telegraph call has for its object the calling 
individual stations by a continuous ringing bell, that 
shall ring loudly enough to wake an operator with- 
out giving signals in any other office. It has not only 
an individual selector, but an automatic " answer 
back," which sends a return signal to the point 
of call ; and a mechanical transmitter which enables 
any number of stations to be called quickly and re- 
liably from a central point. The selector at every 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 303 

station has a controlling wheel with its rim cut to a 
combination differing from that of every other selec- 
tor on the line. The "answerback" has a wheel 
cut with the station signal and with such other letters 
as may be desired. At the train dispatcher's office a 
mechanical transmitter is inserted in the line, carrying 
as many disks as there are stations equipped with the 
locks ; each disk being cut with the combination for a 
given one of the locks. The dispatcher inserts a plug 
in the transmitter at the disk desired and turns a 
crank ; as the transmitter turns the signal is sent over 
the line with clear makes and breaks and selects its cor- 
responding lock, which, taking up the combination, 
closes its local circuits and rings the gong. The 
" answer back " magnet is energized and returns over 
the line the signal indicating that the lock has made its 
combination, the local circuit has been closed, and the 
gong rung. This system permits of calling an opera- 
tor, of throwing the station signal or semaphore if the 
operator fails to respond, and of cutting out any par- 
ticular office or offices so that messages shall not be 
read by intermediate stations. 

Telegraphers' feats in working on long circuits when 
short circuits have been broken was illustrated during 
the first days of the blizzard of three years ago, when 
news was sent from Boston to New York by way of 
an ocean cable, but the operation of long land cir- 
cuits is not uncommon. An operator in Portland, Or., 
relates an experience on the longest land circuit prob- 
ably ever operated. The wires on the Southern Pacific 
went down, and early in the evening all communi- 
cations east of Omaha were shut off, but the Northern 



304 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

Pacific wires were connected and Associated Press 
dispatches from the East were sent to Chicago, and 
thence to St. Paul, Helena, Portland, Seattle, Tacoma, 
San Francisco, and Los Angeles. The dispatches were 
repeated at relays automatically. The circuit ex- 
tended from the extreme north to the extreme south, 
and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 

A telegraphic instrument recently devised by 
Samuel W. Smith, of New York City, consists of 
a key board like a typewriting machine, a depression 
of each key of which causes the regular Morse dots 
and dashes to be made. 

In the great storm of January 25, there were many 
telegraphic wires broken. The Wheatstone duplex 
instrument during that time sent 30,000 words from 
New York to Chicago in one hour, thus doing the 
work of ten expert senders. 

A telegraph between Pekin and St. Petersburg is 
decided upon. 

There is to be a submarine cable between Pernam- 
buco and Senegal. 

The soundings made by Belknap in the North 
Pacific show that the great circle route for a sub- 
marine cable is not feasible, there being a trough* or 
basin along the east coast of Japan and the Kurile 
Islands, and under the Japan stream, in one case hav- 
ing 4643 fathoms without bottom being reached. 
The depth of the deepest cast, 5J miles, is enough 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 305 

to hold two mountains as high as Japan's Fusiyama, 
one on top of the other, and then the summit of the 
highest would be nearly two-thirds of a mile under 
water. 



THE TELEPHONE. 

It would at first seem that there were few new 
fields to cultivate in the line of telephony. Dur- 
ing the past year the principal subject of discussion 
in this line has been the matter of the fundamental 
patents which control the invention ; but there still 
have been, if not great strides, at least very steady 
onward progress in this line ; notably one from the 
far Antipodes, to which the place of honor is ac- 
corded. 

LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONY. 

The Collier audible telephone employs a soft iron 
armature directly between the poles of the magnet, 
thus using two poles, and with these two vibrating 
diaphragms, one between each pole and the core ; 
and the sound of the vibration is taken from inside 
the diaphragm box instead of from outside as is now 
usually done — the latter arrangement giving greater 
volume of sound by reason of the greater activity of 
the magnetization and from the additional magnetic 
variations going on in the core. The sound will 
almost fill a small room, and it is said that the objec- 
tion to the telephone in India, that the natives of one 
caste will not use the instrument placed against the 
ear of a native of a lower one, is now done away with. 
The core of soft iron, laminated both endwise and 



306 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

lengthwise, is mounted on an insulating reel and wound 
with wire ; then mounted in a solid block of ebonite, 
having a ring turned out as usual to grip the metal 
diaphragm. On each side is a pole piece, the two 
forming the magnetic poles, each nearly touching the 
diaphragm. The magnet is placed outside the whole. 
From the inside surface of the two diaphragms three 
small holes are led up each side to the mouthpiece, 
which has a small co.ne to lead and concentrate the 
sound. 

Bottomley, manager of the Telephone Company 
of Ireland, says that, from the experiments made, he 
is satisfied that conversation with this instrument, 
without the aid of a microphone, could be carried on 
with distinctness and comfort over a line of 5000 miles. 

The telephone from London to Paris was laid 
early in March, and conversation goes on well. 
There are in the cable four separate conductors, two 
for each circuit ; each one being a strand of seven 
very pure copper wires, weighing 160 pounds per 
nautical mile. The English overland wire weighs 
400 pounds to the mile, and the going and return- 
ing wires of each circuit are twisted spirally around 
each other, so as to exchange their places and thus 
prevent induction. This line is 85 miles long. The 
French overland wire is 204 miles long and weighs 
600 pounds per mile. 

This telephone is said by Preece to give most sat- 
isfactory results ; there being no circuit in or out of 
London on which speech is more perfect than between 
London and Paris. Speech has been extended to 
Brussels, and even to Marseilles, 900 miles. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 307 

During the past year, concerts given in New York 
were heard by an audience of 1000 people in New- 
ton, Mass., 250 miles away. Similar entertainments 
have been given, in clear weather, with a distance of 
460 miles between. 

The republic of Costa Rica is soon to have a 
complete system of telephonic communication. The 
government has made a contract for the establishment 
of telephone service betw r een all the towns of the 
republic and for its maintenance for ten years. 

The Austrian government will purchase, at the end 
of 1892, the entire business of the telephone com- 
panies of that country. 



MILITARY. 



It is a cause of regret that the arts of war keep 
pace so regularly with those of peace ; and that the 
greatest incentive offered to inventors in the line of 
chemical technology is the discovery of some new ex- 
plosive, and the strongest inducements held out to 
metallurgists and iron workers are the rewards aris- 
ing from the production of hard and tough metal for 
projectiles and for armor. But this is as it is, not as 
it should be or as we would like it to be ; and all 
that the chronicler can do is to record the progress 
that has been made in the direction of military de- 
struction and defense. 

It will be noted that the important subjects of 
Ordnance and Firearms are treated under a separate 



308 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

head ; and that only those explosives are here con- 
sidered which are available for military use. the rest 
being noted under the caption of Industrial Tech- 
nology. 

DEFENSES OF NEW YORK HARBOR. 

The engineering department of the United States 
Army is perfecting the last details of the plans for 
a work of vast importance, as it will complete the de- 
fenses of New York Harbor against any known power 
of war. These plans are for a great fort of modern 
mortar batteries, to be constructed facing the 
ocean and defending the broad gateway of the 
harbor. 

October 1, the United States fulfilling the oft and 
earnestly repeated requests of the War Department, 
acquired fifty acres of Plumb Island, lying at the 
east end of Coney Island, and ground has been broken 
for the most noteworthy of modern batteries for 
vertical fire. 

For many years the engineers of the War Depart- 
ment have been casting solicitous glances at the 
most dangerous omission in the line of defenses about 
the ocean entrance to New York Harbor, rendered 
every year more dangerous by the improvements in 
carrying capacity and destructiveness of the guns 
placed on ships of war. Besides the two or three 
narrow channels that are navigable through the 
entrance to New York Harbor in the waters between 
Coney Island and Sandy Hook, there is a pocket of 
deep water approaching the Long Island shore from 
the ocean, some miles to the east of these channels, 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 309 

that is navigable to any vessel, whatever may be her 
draught. 

By this deep pocket a man-of-war could arrive at a 
safe anchorage in Rockaway Inlet. Less than six 
miles away from this anchorage are the outlying 
wards of Brooklyn, two miles further is the East 
River, and another mile beyond is the heart of New 
York City. From this inlet a hostile ironclad could 
bombard Brooklyn and New York with a destruction 
unparalleled in the history of bombardment, and there 
could be no effective reply to this attack. Fort 
Hamilton and Fort Wads worth, guarding the Narrows 
between the upper and lower bays, would be nine 
miles away from the disturber, safely anchored in 
Rockaway Inlet, and these forts have no armament 
that could throw shell such a distance. 

In 1882 General John Newton and a body of engi- 
neers from the army made a critical examination of 
this pocket with a view to perfecting the defenses of 
the great twin cities. They found that this deep 
water could be brought under fire in a circle having 
Plumb Island in the center with a radius of six miles. 
They recommended the acquisition of Plumb Island 
by the Government and the immediate construction 
of fortifications there. Since that time several 
schemes have been proposed for guarding the en- 
trance of New York Harbor that would include the 
defense of this deep-water approach to the shore of 
Long Island. Soon after the Act of Congress, ap- 
proved August 18, 1890, to purchase lands for de- 
fensive purposes, Colonel G. L. Gillespie, constructing 
engineer of the fortifications at the port of New York, 
was instructed by the War Department to examine 



310 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

into the feasibility of building defenses on Plumb 
Island. He reported favorably on the scheme and. 
proposed the acquisition of fifty acres of the island to 
be covered by mortar batteries. 

Plumb Island is partly in the rear of the low bar of 
sand forming the eastern end of Coney Island known 
as Point Breeze. The island has a low, slanting 
beech, backed by a few sandhills and stretches of salt 
meadows. Behind, across Hog Creek and Broad 
Creek, the low meadow land extends back for many 
hundred acres. The highest spot on the island is not 
fifteen feet above mean high tide. During the heavy 
seas of early spring a large part of the island is under 
water. 

The importance of the work which will soon be 
begun on this desolate little slip of sea sand cannot 

be overstated. It includes the entire outlvinor ocean 

«. <-> 

defense of the greatest of America's harbors and 
the protection from bombardment of its greatest 
cities. 

The new mortar will command not only the deep- 
water pocket that would allow an ironclad to ap- 
proach the shore from the ocean, but in the longest 
range of its guns can defend the channels of the 
Narrows against the entrance of a foreign hostile 
fleet to the harbor of New York. In case a fleet of 
warships succeeded in entering the lower bay it could 
join in the grand conflict that would arise when they 
met the guns of the forts that stand at the entrance to 
the upper bay ; while the Plumb Island batteries will 
be able to render this assistance to the bay fortifica- 
tions until the hostile men-of-war have drawn within 
a mile or two of the big guns at the Narrows. Forts 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 311 

Wadsworth and Hamilton could not drop a single 
shell on a man-of-war anchored in Rockaway Inlet, 
ten miles from their mortar batteries. From the 
forts on Plumb Island a line drawn almost due south- 
ward will cross the whistling buoy which marks the 
entrance to Gedney's Channel, a distance of less than 
six nautical miles. 

The Plumb Island mortar batteries are to be arranged 
in two fortifications of earthworks, standing side by 
side and facing the ocean at a southwest angle. Each 
fort is to be 600 by 400 feet. The ramparts are to be 
35 feet above ebb tide, and the guns will rest on a body 
of cement raised ten feet above low r water. 

The interior of each fort is to be divided into four 
pits, each containing four twelve-inch howitzers. The 
guns will be fired out of a great well, as the earth walls 
of the fort will rise twenty-five feet above the level on 
which the cannons are operated. The mortars will 
thus be entirely invisible from the ocean. In the deep 
pits the guns will be perfectly protected from the im- 
pact of the shot thrown by the enemy, as the mounds 
of earth forming the ramparts are to be of a thickness 
impenetrable by any known projectile. Between the 
pits will be storage magazines for powder, protected 
by masonry and earth, and there are to be extensive 
magazines for high explosives located at some dis- 
tance from the batteries. The powder magazines 
for each battery will hold 100 tons. In the rear the 
two forts will not be parquetted, but will be left 
open. 

The only way that the Plumb Island batteries could 
be silenced in time of war would be by destroying the 
earthworks. They could not be attacked by mortars 



312 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

from the ocean unless a problem in naval engineering 
was solved that has so far proved impossible of solution 
These are mechanical difficulties resulting from the re- 
coil of heavy guns, that prevent their firing at an ele- 
vation exceeding 15 degrees, while a mortar is most 
often fired at 30 degrees and upward. The large guns 
forming the armament of a man-of-war are only for 
horizontal fire, and the only vessel equipped with can- 
non for vertical fire is the Vesuvius, which have been 
proved a failure. It is, therefore, safe to say that the 
gunners who may be called upon to operate the how- 
itzers in the pits at Plumb Island in case of war will 
not suffer from shot thrown into the sky above them 
by guns on the ships whose attack they will repel. 

The thirty-two great guns for the two Plumb Island 
batteries are to be of the new pattern of twelve-inch 
howitzers, of which successful tests have been made 
at Sandy Hook. They are breech-loading, built-up, 
steel lined, rifle bored, and steel hooped. They are 
much longer than the old pattern of mortar, and are 
capable of extreme accuracy in firing. The projectiles 
for one of these monster cannons, which, dropped on 
the deck of the best armored ironclad in existence, 
w^ould pierce the entire ship, is of steel, three feet long, 
weighing 625 pounds. Eighty pounds of powder will 
drive this large projectile eight miles. The gun will 
also throw shells containing high explosives. By this 
means the fort could drop enough nitro-glycerine on a 
ship's deck to scatter an ironclad into ten thousand 
pieces. 

The important work at Plumb Island will go on 
coincidently with the completion of the fortifications at 
Sandy Hook. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 313 

POSITION AND RANGE FINDERS. 

The position finder is a device of Lieutenant Fiske,by 
which a gunner may know the direction and distance 
of an object which he cannot see, but which can be 
seen by two observers at opposite ends of a base line. 
It consists of a range finder at the gun, in electrical 
communication with the two observing stations, the 
record from each of which is made at the gun 
station. 

Welden's range finder, as now made, consists of a 
metal box on the lid of which are three prisms, one 
above the other. The upper one is right angled and 
is mounted with the right angle outward ; and 
looking in its left-hand corner there will be seen, by 
double reflection, objects lying on the right of the 
observer. Below this is a second one with a principle 
angle of 88° 51' 15", and below this a third with a 
principle angle of 74° 53' 15". There is also a level 
and a compass. To use the instrument the observer 
stands so that the object the range of which is re- 
quired stands at his right hand, and looking into the 
left-hand corner of the upper prism views it there by 
double reflection from the internal face of the prism. 
At the same time, looking through an opening in the 
lid below the prism, he selects some object nearly in 
line with the image seen in the prism. He then shifts 
his position until the two images coincide, in which 
case lines joining him with the two objects will make 
ri^ht angles with each othei\ He then marks hia 
position on the ground, and shifting the instrument, 
looks through the left-hand corner of the left prism, 



314 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

when he again sees the image of the object, by double 
reflection, but to the right of the lining object. He 
then retires, keeping in line with his first position and 
with the first lining object, until he reaches the posi- 
tion where the two images again coincide ; and the 
line joining them and the observer will make an angle 
of 88 p 51' 15". In this case the distance to the de- 
sired object will be fifty times the distance paced. A 
longer base and greater accuracy may be had with the 
second prism, which will give the range of the object 
as 25 times the distance paced. The error in use is 
from two and a half to three per cent. 

A new type of shell fuse by Berdan utilizes the 
rotary motion w of the shell in passing through the air, 
so as to cause the shell to explode when it has made 
the number of rotations at which the fuse has been 
set. With one screw and one small wheel the motion 
of the shell is reduced 1200 turns to one of the index 
wheel. The tendency of the shell to turn the entire 
fuse around bodily with the shell is counteracted by 
a weight. 

It is proposed to employ railway lines following the 
coast as a means of military defense, using six-inch 
breech-loading guns, of five tons, fired at a right angle 
to the line, and of course making use of machine guns. 
In a total length of 1900 miles of English coast, 1270 
could be defended from the railways and 425 are 
inaccessible. 

Snow breastworks six feet thick have been shown 
to be proof against bullets fired from a distance of 



BEC0KD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 315 

300 paces. If well packed, five feet will do ; if an 
outer crust of ice is formed by natural causes, four 
feet will suffice ; and if an artificial crust is formed by 
pouring water, 3^ feet will answer for the same degree 
of protection. 

A committee of the French War Office recommends 
a buckler of aluminium and copper for the use of 
troops. 

EXPLOSIVES. 

Apyrite, the new Swedish smokeless powder, is 
based upon highly nitrated cellulose, giving a low 
pressure of 2200 to 2500 atmospheres, and an initial 
velocity of 630 to 650 meters, with no flame, and 
slight heating of the rifle. It is like ordinary black 
powder in appearance, and the products of ex- 
plosion give an alkaline reaction. It is to a high de- 
gree unaffected by rubbing and blows, and burns, even 
when ignited in large quantities, without an explo- 
sion — as proved by an accidental ignition of 80 kilo- 
meters, the glasses in the room in which this explosion 
occurred not being broken. It does not alter its con- 
stituency by heating even to a high temperature, and 
does not mass together on being stored. With the 
present Swedish rifle, 3|- grams of apyrite was used 
with a bullet weighing 14£ grams, resulting in an 
initial velocity of 640 meters and a pressure of 2260 
atmospheres. 

Ammonite is a new explosive consisting of a mixture 
of 81^- per cent, ammonium nitrate and 18 \ of 
mononitro-naphthaline. Being free from chlorates 



316 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

it is not liable to spontaneous explosion nor to decom- 
position. Having no picric acid or chlorinated deriva- 
tives of hydrocarbons, it yields no injurious or corro- 
sive fumes. It is put up for use in lead foil cartridges 
and exploded by a detonator. A 29-pound projectile 
was thrown from a mortar, elevated 45°, 320 feet by a 
five-gram charge as against 289 feet by a similar 
charge of number one dynamite, and 136 by an equal 
weight of gunpowder. So far it seems to be of use in 
quarrying only in soft material. 

A new explosive, called f ortis, is being tried by the 
Belgian government. It is said to have a force of 
from 30 to 40 per cent, more than that of any other 
explosive, surprising even its inventors. A mine 13 
feet deep was drilled in the solid rock and charged 
with a relatively small quantity of f ortis. It detached 
a mass over 200 feet in height, breaking it into 50 to 
60-pound pieces, and projecting them 350 yards. 

There are many other explosives which have been 
tried during the past year, with greater or less success, 
but as many of them have been offered to do service 
in the arts of peace they are not described under the 
heading Military. For further mention of them the 
reader is referred to the heading Industrial Technology, 
and he is advised to consult the Index for other items 
bearing directly or indirectly on military subjects. 

MILITARY DOVECOTES. 

The system of military dovecotes is being developed 
rapidly in Europe. Both France and Germany have 
large establishments and improved systems of inter- 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 317 

communication by pigeon dispatch. Paris is to have 
ten cotes of 720 birds each ; Langres, five cotes, 
3600 pigeons. There are in Paris 11,000 pigeons, of 
which 5000 are trained ; and in the suburbs 7000, of 
which 3000 are trained. At Roubaix, which lias only 
100,000 people, there are 15,000 pigeons. In all 
France there are 100,000 trained pigeons. A pigeon 
will fly from Paris to Lyons in eight to nine hours, a 
distance that it takes a train thirteen to accom- 
plish. 

ORDNANCE AND FIREARMS. 

As a matter of convenience this subject is treated 
apart from general military matters, under which 
there will be found notes akin to some of those here 
noted — as for instance Explosives, some of which are 
mentioned under the heading Military, and others of 
which may be found chronicled under that of Indus- 
trial Technology. 

The contest still goes on between the makers of 
armor and those who produce cannon by which to 
pierce them. As a general thing the side which pro- 
duces the latest invention has the advantage if only 
for a while; each " impenetrable " armor-plate some 
day succumbing to a new projectile, and in turn each 
irresistible projectile meeting its match in the latest 
armor-plate. 

At present the principal novelty seems to be the 
production and test of rapid-firing cannon, which are 
a development of the mitrailleuse, as the latter was of 
the ordinary revolving pistol. 



318 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

Disappearing turrets for quick-firing cannon are 
now produced. In one style (Maxim-Nordenfelt) the 
turret is raised and lowered by hydrostatic means, and 
as it practically floats is readily trained at any angle 
in a horizontal plane. 

Another turret is raised and lowered by a rack 
and pinion, being counterbalanced. It turns on balls. 

In the third type, the gun does not disappear ; its 
muzzle remaining projecting beyond the embrasure. 
A fixed circular armor belt rests. on the top of a wall 
of concrete forming the pit for the gunners ; and the 
movable protection is an armored cupola, pear shaped 
on top and having a roller path on its under side : 
rollers bearing on rings fixed to the concrete enable 
the turret and the gun to be turned. 

Japan has been having some very heavy Caret guns 
made by the Compagnie des Forges et Chan tiers de 
la Mediterranee. They weigh 66 tons, are 12J- inches 
bore, 41 feet 8 inches long, have a maximum weight 
of projectile of 1034 pounds, require a powder charge of 
562.2 pounds, and give a muzzle velocity of 2262 feet 
per second, and a penetration of wrought iron of 45.16 
inches. Their maximum range is over 13 miles, thus 
showing that Japan leads the world in the actual 
power of her heavy guns. 

The new rapid-fire cannons which have been adopted 
by Russia throw 40- to 80-pound projectiles 10 to 15 
times per minute, nearly seven miles ; each one ca- 
pable of piercing a 20-inch wrought iron plate. The 
force of the recoil is made to bring the gun back into 
position at each shot, 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 319 

The U. S. government has made a contract with 
the Bethlehem Iron Co. for one hundred new high- 
power guns, of which 25 are to be 8 -inch breech - 
loading, single charge, built up, forged steel rifle guns, 
50 10-inch, and 25 12-inch, of the same pattern. 
The price is $3,785,850. 

In a new automatic magazine rifle the gas from 
the first cartridge fired presses a piston and spiral 
spring, which on its recoil opens the breech, removes 
the empty cartridge, and reloads and cocks the gun. 
The best results have been eight shots in five 
seconds. 

Tests have been made, by a board of army officers, 
of magazine small arms, the caliber having been 
settled upon as 0.30 inch instead of 0.45, as of old. 
The new cartridge has a bottle-necked shell, and 
when loaded is 3.09 inches long ; this being ten times 
the greatest diameter of the bullet, which has three 
grooves for lubricant. The bullet is of hardened 
lead in a copper jacket : the jacket being to enable it 
to go through the grooves without being stripped. 
The bullet weighs 230 grains, the charge 36 grains 
of smokeless powder. The initial velocity is nearly 
2000 feet ; the projectile is flat, and the range about 
4000 yards. 

The Swiss magazine rifle has as its most striking 
feature the large number of cartridges that its maga- 
zine contains. It is 1^ times the diameter of a cart- 
ridge, and the cartridges lie in it alternately right 
and left. It is filled from pockets of six cartridges 



320 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

each ; although it may be filled with single cartridges. 
A cut-off will put the magazine out of connection 
and the piece may then be used as a single loader. 
It takes eight seconds to charge the magazine with 
the 12 cartridges. The breech motion is worked by 
a straight line movement as in the Mannlicher rifle ; 
the bolt being pushed in and out and not turned. 
The breech plug is locked at its rear end. This rifle 
will fire 20 aimed shots per minute, when used as a 
single loader ; with the magazine 30 in the same 
time, and 40 without aiming. The cartridge case is 
of millboard with metal lips, and is of but slight 
value. 

Russia has decided to use the Mauser rifle, which 
will be made in France. Its caliber will be 7.62 
mm. ; its magazine will have five cartridges. 

It is said that the bore of the Austrian rifle is to 
be reduced to 5£ mm. (0.216 inch). 

EXPLOSIVES. 

Progress in field artillery points to the universal 
use of smokeless powder, the use of high explosives 
for shells, increase in the length, and therefore the 
capacity of the shells, the employment of field how- 
itzers or mortars, and increase in the muzzle velocity 
of guns and in the amount of ammunition carried. 

But after making thorough tests of the various 
kinds of smokeless powder, including American and 
English, England rejected its use for small arms, 
owing to its not being compatible with the use of the 
uniform cartridges adopted by the British army, and 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 321 

also on account of its extremely rapid combustion ; 
but has decided to use it in cannon, a fourfold 
gain in the velocity of projectiles being obtained 
thereby. 

A NEW PROJECTILE. 

Hiram S. Maxim has invented an armor-piercing 
projectile having two annular air chambers between 
its front and rear. The rear part is designed to be 
moved forward relatively to the body, when acted 
upon by the explosion of the powder charge in the 
gun. 



METEOROLOGY. 



July 1 our Weather Signal Bureau was turned 
over to the Department of Agriculture, with the in- 
tention of making a systematic investigation of the 
climatic conditions of the various sections of the 
country, in order that a full knowledge of them and 
their effects should be available for the farmer. 

Among the appropriations made was one for the 
purpose of enabling the of t proposed scheme of mak- 
ing rain fall at will, in dry seasons and in dry places, 
by the action of the atmosphere caused by cannonad- 
ing and explosion of dynamite, hydrogen balloons, 
etc. These experiments, undertaken in the State of 
Texas, and elsewhere, did not prove a success. They 
excited a great deal of interest and discussion; the 
two principal papers against the feasibility of the 
plan being by Professor Simon Newcomb in the 
North American Hevieio, and by Professor Edwin J. 
Houston, before the Electrical Section of the Frank- 



322 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

lin Institute of Philadelphia. From the latter the fol- 
lowing paragraphs are taken : 

The following general conclusions may, in view of 
the present state of meteorological science, be prop- 
erly drawn : 

(1) That rain can never be made to fall at will by 
mid-air explosions on any part of the earth's surface, 
irrespective of the climatic conditions there existing. 

(2) That during certain meteorological conditions, 
mid-air explosions may result in rainfall over extend- 
ed areas. 

(3) That the liberation of energy, necessary for 
such rainfalls, is due not to the mid-air explosions, 
but to the energy stored up in the moist air from 
which the rain is derived. 

(4) That the meteorological conditions which must 
exist for the successful action of mid-air explosions 
would probably, in most, though not in all cases, 
themselves result in a natural production of rain. 

(5) That a comparatively high difference of elec- 
tric potential between different parts of the air, or 
between the air and earth, is possibly favorable when 
taken in connection with other meteorological condi- 
tions for artificial rain-making. 

(6) That an undirected mid-air explosion is not so 
likely to produce rain as an explosion in which the 
main tendency of the energy liberated is to cause a 
general uprush of the air. 

It has been shown that the weather of Kansas di- 
vides itself into seven-year wet and dry periods, and 
that the rainfall there is steadily increasing. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 323 



AERONAUTY. 

A flying machine invented by Laurence Hargrove, 
of Sydney, N". S. W., is propelled by compressed air 
stored in a tube which forms the backbone of the 
construction. This is two inches in diameter and 
48^ inches long, containing 144.6 cubic inches. Its 
weight is 19.5 ounces and the "working pressure 230 
pounds per square inch. The engine has a cylinder 
1J inches diameter, l£ inch stroke ; and the total 
engine weight is 6| ounces. The air is admitted and 
exhausted by a valve worked by tappets. The piston 
is of vulcanite. The wings are paper and weigh 
three ounces. In a dead calm the machine flew 368 
feet. 

H. S. Maxim was at work in June on a flying- 
machine of silk and steel, with a plane 110 feet by 40 
feet, with heavy wooden screws 18 feet in diameter, 
driven by a condensing petroleum engine. He 
claims that one horse power will carry 133 pounds 
35 miles per hour ; and that the screw will lift 40 
times as much on the propelled plane as it could 
push. A motor weighing 1800 pounds, and which 
can push 1000 pounds, should therefore lift 40,000 
pounds. The estimated weight of engines, generator, 
condenser, water supply of two gallons per hour, 
petroleum 40 gallons per hour, and two men, is 5000 
pounds. Thus with a steam kite weighing 6800 
pounds gross he hopes to have an ascendant power 
of 40,000 pounds, or 11 tons more than the dead 
weight. 



324 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

Mr. Charles Carson, of Grenoble, France, has de- 
signed an apparatus by which one may fall 1000 feet ; 
the fall to be broken by a well filled with water. 
The velocity at 1000 feet would be about 80 meters 
per second ; nearly three times the speed of a fast 
railway train. 

In March Prof. Renard was building a dirigible 
air ship of over 3000 cubic yards capacity ; the 
motor being made of aluminium. It was to leave 
Meudon and sail between Versailles and Paris. 

The idea of reaching the North Pole by balloon 
does not seem to meet with much approval, even 
from the French Society of Aerial Navigation, which 
pronounced unanimously against it. It was pro- 
jected by MM. Hermite and Besan<jon. 

The Illinois air ship made a very successful trip 
from Mt. Carmel to Chicago. It was carried on a 
way freight train. 

The Cosmopolitan Magazine has offered prizes for 
the best essays on practicable methods of aerial navi- 
gation. 

ASTRONOMY. 

There seems to have been during 1891 but little 
astronomical matter worthy of special chronicle for 
the use of the general reader, and as the space availa- 
ble for the record of all the happenings in the world 
of science is necessarily limited in the present work, 
the reader will pardon the omission of mention of 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 325 

occurrences which would interest comparatively few. 
Of course omission to note things that did not hap- 
pen need not be laid at the writer's door. 

The transit of Mercury was observed on May 9th 
at the Lick Observatory with the 12-inch equatorial. 
No bright spot was seen on the planet, nor any 
atmospheric ring, such as was seen about Venus at 
the transit of December 6, 1882. Nothing was 
seen on the sun's disk that could be taken for a 
satellite. 

There seems to be some indication, observed by the 
Lick telescope at Mount Hamilton, that one of the 
moons of Jupiter is double. 

The spots that have been noticed on Venus seem to 
be of a pronounced character. 

Mr. A. Stanley Williams, of Burgess Hill, Sussex, 
England, has discovered three delicate but distinct 
markings on the equatorial ridge of Saturn; the first 
and third round bright spots, the second a smaller 
dark marking on the equatorial edge of the shadow 
belt forming the southern boundary of the white 
zone. 

During the forthcoming decade there are to be four 
available total eclipses — one in South America in 1893, 
one in Siberia in August, 1896, one in India in Janu- 
ary, 1898, and one in the United States in May, 1900. 

It is proposed to erect an observatory upon Mount 
Blanc, at a height of 15,781 feet above sea level, up- 
on the very summit. It is to be of iron, 85 by 20 feet. 



326 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 



AGRICULTURE. 

The caprification of figs has existed since ancient 
times, but authorities say that its benefit has been 
disputed. Caprification is the process of accelerating 
the ripening of figs by placing on the cultivated plant 
branches of the wild fig, the insects on which fly to 
the cultivated figs and puncture them for the purpose 
of laying their eggs. The fruit thus stimulated ripens 
earlier. According to another authority, it is sup- 
posed that the little insects insure fertilization by 
carrying the pollen from male flowers near the open- 
ing of the fig down to the female flowers. 

G. C. Roeding, a fruit grower of Fresno, Cal., 
is a believer in caprification, and he has shown to 
the State Board of Trade the results of his experi- 
ments. He sent to Smyrna five years ago for wild 
and cultivated cuttings. Last year all of the figs that 
grew on the cultivated cuttings, which produced 
abundant crops, did not mature. They fell before 
they were ripe. This year he took the pollen of the 
wild fig and inserted it into some of the cultivated 
figs, which filled and matured, while the other fruit 
fell. The seeds of the ripened figs had fertile kernels. 
It is believed that the fruit grown on the many impor- 
tations of Smyrna cuttings in California may be made 
marketable by introducing the wild fig. 

AMERICAN CAMPHOR. 

Interest in the growing of camphor trees in the 
United States is stimulated by the increase in the 
cost of the gum by reason of its use for smokless 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 327 

powder and in the manufacture of celluloid goods. 
The cultivation of the camphor plant is being tried 
at Palatka, Fla., and our Department of Agriculture 
will have a large supply of trees for distribution in 
the spring of 1892. Camphor trees have done well 
in California. A tree in Yuba County reached a 
height of 50 feet in 14 years. As a matter of orna- 
ment the trees are desirable because they are exempt 
from insect parasites. 

NEW METHODS OF VINE PRUNING. 

Thoreau's system of prunjng grape-vines consists 
in bending down a branch and covering its lower end 
in the earth, leaving exposed a shoot which projects 
above the surface of the earth at the covered part ; 
then each vine is made to do double duty. 

Cazanave's system is to bend each plant to one side 
about a foot above the ground, and encourage the 
upward growth of shoots which each year are turned 
down into the earth, there to take new root. 

In the Thoreau system the stalk carries two 
branches, one of which is the fruit branch with 12 to 
15 buds, and the other the wood branch with two to 
three eyes to furnish the shoot for the next year's fruit 
branch. 

A contributor to Grazhdanin shows that the fre- 
quent lack of rain and the abnormal heat of the last few 
years, in the agricultural region between the Volga 
and the Dnieper, were due to the drying up of the 
turf swamps in the government of Pinsk. The 
government has expended many millions in the work 
of turning these swamps into rich meadows. Now it 



328 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

appears that ten times as much as was gained by that 
work is lost every year by the effect it produces on 
the whole region. JVbvoye Vremya remarks that 
these bad consequences were foretold by scientific 
observers. Other possible evil effects were also fore- 
told. It was shown by expert strategists that in case 
of war with Germany the dry roads which were 
created by that work might cause serious trouble to 
the army which has to guard Che western frontiers, 
while the swamps formed a natural barrier to foreign 
armies in that place. 

The Australian irrigation colonies on the River 
Murray have been proved to be a success. There are 
now 90 miles of main tunnels and 140 of subsidiary. 
The annual death rate is only 4.4 per thousand. 

COTTON PICKING BY MACHINERY. 

A mechanical cotton picker, devised by a Mr. 
Campbell, has 330 fingers, or spindles, projecting from 
and through a hollow cylinder, each ten inches long 
and having at the end a brush or tip of fine wire ; 
and set in grooves, radially, is horse hair, clipped 
so that it projects from the fingers about T J ^ of an 
inch. These hairs catch in the fiber and drag it from 
the boll. The machine is four feet wide, seven feet 
long, and 5| feet high, weighing 1200 pounds, and is 
drawn by two mules. It gathers about 300 pounds 
an hour, at a cost said to be only $1.50 per bale, as 
against $16 now paid for hand work. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 329 

GOVERNMENT TIMBER TESTS. 

The Department of Agriculture at Washington 
has commenced a series of tests of timber, with a view 
to determining the essential working properties of 
our various woods, and the circumstances w T hich influ- 
ence them ; the influence of seasoning in different 
degrees upon quality ; the effects of age, speed of 
growth, time of felling, and after treatment upon 
quality ; the relation of structure to quality ; the 
extent to which weight is a criterion of strength ; the 
influence of climatic and soil conditions upon quality ; 
the effect of tapping for turpentine upon the quality 
of pine timber, etc. The studies are to be made in 
the botanical laboratory at the University of Michigan 
and Ann Arbor, and at the St. Louis Test Laboratory. 

It has been said that a cure for phylloxera consists 
in the application to the vine plant of £ ounce of 
quicksilver in very minute particles, mixed with an 
equal weight of pulverized clay, for each plant ; but 
up to date no definite information as to its efficacy 
seems to be at hand. 

Banana flour has been received in this country from 
Durban, South Africa. 

Olive oil is to be made in considerable amount in 
Sonoma, Cal., where there are now 60 acres of olive 
trees and 700 more are being planted. The establish- 
ment will cost $250,000. 

It has been found that silk worms may in hunger 



330 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

be made to eat the leaves of dandelion and salsify, 
particularly if mixed with mulberry leaves ; and this 
paves the way for sericulture in Germany and other 
countries. 

A new remedy for the phylloxera is bisulphide 
of carbon, mixed with vaseline, which reduces its 
volatility and increases its diffusibility. 

Our government is introducing reindeer into Alaska, 
where they will be treated like domestic animals. 



INTERCOMMUNICATION. 

New and proposed routes of intercommunication 
are always of interest to everyone, whether engaged 
in manufacturing, in selling goods, or in transporta- 
tion general or particular. The brotherhood of men 
is rendered more possible and more binding by the 
completion or even by the mere formal consideration 
of new routes, better and shorter, from one section 
of the country to another, or between continents or 
grand divisions. Under the heads of Railway, 
Canals, Tunnels, etc., there will be found mention 
more or less detailed of several such routes ; those 
which should not be so classified being mentioned 
below. 

NEW ROUTE TO INDIA. 

t 

A new mail route to India is proposed by the 
Dover-Ostend boats through Belgium, Germany, 
Austria, Hungary, Servia, and Turkey to Salonica, 
instead of from Calais through France and Italy to 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 331 

Brindisi. Thirty-six hours out of the 16^ days can 
be saved by this route, if the trains can be protected 
from brigands in Turkey, and by some improvements 
at Salonica. 

FROM CHICAGO TO LIVERPOOL. 

A company is organized with a capital of a million 
pounds sterling with which to establish a fleet of ten 
1500-ton steamers to ply between Chicago and Great 
Britain via the Great Lakes. Bv the Lakes, Welland 
Canal, and St. Lawrence River, the distance is 4488 
miles between Chicago and Liverpool ; via New York 
by rail 4353 miles; the time being 337 hours in the 
latter case as against 346 in the former. By rail to 
Montreal, and thence by steamer, is 4062 miles, re. 
quiring 328 hours. 

THE NOVA SCOTIA ROUTE TO EUROPE. 

The Terminal City Company has been organized 
with a view to shorten the passage between America 
and Europe by making the nearest available land on 
either side the respective starting-points. The site 
chosen for the western terminus is on Nova Scotia 
territory in the Straits of Canso, where there is said 
to be a fine harbor with good approaches from 4he 
interior and by water. The distance saved by this 
route will be 600 miles, and it is said that the first 
steamer will soon make her trial trip. 

UNIFORM STEAMSHIP ROUTE. 

The steamship companies trading between New 
York and Liverpool have adopted a uniform route 
for all steamers each way ; being the safest course 



332 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

they can suggest. The length of the passage will 
vary from 2900 miles between January and July, to 
2775 between July and January, when the North 
Atlantic is comparatively free from icebergs. 

THE CHIGNECTO SHIP RAILWAY. 

The Chignecto Ship Railway, in Canada, crosses 
the narrow peninsula between Nova Scotia and the 
mainland. It was commenced in 1888, and should 
have been completed in 1891. There is a basin, 500 
feet by 300, at the Bay of Fundy end of the line, 
with a gate to inclose the water when the tide is 
out. From this is a lifting dock, 230 by 60 feet, con- 
taining 20 hydraulic presses for lifting vessels with 
their cargoes 40 feet. The extreme weight to be 
raised is 3500 tons, including the gridiron cradle and 
a loaded vessel, 2000 tons displacement or 1000 tons 
register. The railway is double track, 17 miles long, 
perfectly straight, and on almost a dead level ; the 
steel rails weigh 110 pounds to the yard. A loco- 
motive on each track is supposed to move the largest 
vessel at the rate of ten miles per hour. This rail- 
way has had work suspended on it by reason of the 
state of the money market ; but the rails have been 
laid for 12 miles, and the line half ballasted. 

THE HURO^-ONTARIO SHIP RAILWAY. 

A ship railway, 66 miles long, is advocated between 
Lakes Huron and Ontario, whence there should be 
sufficient enlargement of river and canal to insure a 
navigable depth of twenty feet from Chicago to the 
ocean, thus reducing freight rates nearly one- 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 333 

half. The cost of this scheme would be about 
$43,000,000. 

An electric launch service is proposed on the River 
Spree at Berlin. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 

LIGHTHOUSES AND SIGNALS. 

It has been admitted for a long time, in these days 
of many ships and much travel, that all lighthouse 
lights should have such distinguishing characteristics 
as to make it impossible for any mariner suddenly 
coming to a light to be uncertain whether it belongs 
to the lighthouse establishment or not, or to mistake 
one light of the establishment for another. With the 
swift steamers and great competition of the present 
time, when vessels are driven almost as fast in fog as 
in clear weather, a ship running for four or five days, 
without being able to catch a glimpse of sun or stars, 
may easily find herself several miles out of the way. 
If, under these circumstances, a light should be made 
out unexpectedly, the mariner should be able to tell at 
once whether or not it belong to the lighthouse estab- 
lishment, and, if it be so, he should have the means 
of knowing immediately what light it is. Many 
naval officers say that the system of time intervals 
between flashes is unsatisfactory on account of the 
difficulty of accurately timing these intervals when a 
ship is rolling or pitching heavily. Atmospheric in- 
fluences, the nature of which is unknown, cause appa- 
rent variations in the intervals by making them seem 



334 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

sometimes greater and again smaller. Barometric 
changes offer greater or less resistance to the wings 
of the governor of the driving mechanism, and these 
cause variations. In a word, the present system, 
founded on time intervals, is not wholly satisfactory. 
In its place is proposed a system of numeral charac- 
teristics, or the assignment of a number to each light, 
this number being given by groups of flashes. Being 
a system founded on a well-defined principle, no 
change need be made after it is once adopted. 

A committee of Canadian experts, after considering 
the merits of foghorns as against whistles, and guns 
as against bombs, has reported that under the most 
favorable conditions all fog signals are untrustworthy. 
Sometimes a weak signal has been heard further than 
a strong one. Shallow water, by unequal heating of 
the atmosphere, lessens the value of signals. The 
whistle is superior to the horn, and either is better 
than the gun or the bomb. For convenience of 
storage and readiness of handling, bombs are pre- 
ferred to guns, and they are to be used in all the minor 
lighthouses of Canada. The committee warns ship- 
masters against depending on fog signals, they being 
guides to locality only, and not to distance. 

Wigham claims to have produced a new lighthouse 
burner, giving a light of 8,000,000 candles, which is 
greater than that of any other in use. It consists of 
concentric jets, of which 28 are lighted in ordinary 
clear weather, but there may be used 48 to 108 in 
thick weather. The air supplied to the burners is 
heated to a very high temperature before reaching 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 335 

the jets, and the light is increased by use of solid 
naphthaline placed in a chamber below the burner. 

THE SCLEROMETER. 

The sclerometer devised by Turner is an instrument 
for testing the hardness of various kinds of electro- 
plating. There is a graduated beam with unequal 
arms like a steelyard, resting upon knife edges which 
bear upon suitable steel or agate surfaces carried at 
the head of a pillar. A counterweight, on the short 
end of the beam, serves to balance the longer arm, 
and fine adjustment of the beam is by a nut and 
screw. At the end of the longer arm of the beam is 
a brass style shod with a small point. A scale pan 
slides along the long arm, and by its position and the 
weights it contains determines the pressure put upon 
any object by the style. The greater the weight re- 
quired to cause the style to penetrate and mark the 
surface, the harder the surface. 

THE GREATEST PRESSURE GAUGE. 

A mercurial pressure gauge has been erected by 
Caillot, at the Eiffel Tower. It is 984 feet high, and 
gives pressures up to 400 atmospheres. The tube is 
of soft steel, of about -$■ inch internal diameter, con- 
nected at the bottom of the tower with a mercury 
reservoir. By pumping water into the reservoir the 
mercury can be gradually raised to the top of the 
tower. As the tube is opaque, it is necessary to have 
try cocks; and these are placed about every 10 feet, 
communicating with vertical glass tubes having 
graduated scales. A telephone connects the upper 
and the lower ends of the tube, 



336 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

MUSICAL. 

At a meeting of the Piano Manufacturers' Associa- 
tion of New York City and vicinity William Steinway, 
chairman of the committee appointed by the associa- 
tion to consider the question of a uniform musical 
pitch, presented a report, in part as follows : 

Your committee recommend the adoption as a 
standard musical pitch of that A which gives 435 
double vibrations in a second of time. 

Your committee also recommend the tuning forks 
made by Rudolph Koenig of Paris, and vibrating for 
A 435 double vibrations in a second at 68° F., for stand- 
ard forks ; and small forks made by Valentine & Carr, 
Sheffield, giving the same rate of vibration, for com- 
mercial forks. 

Your committee also recommend that the trade 
take such measures as are necessary to place these 
commercial forks in the hands of tuners throughout 
the country. 

The Academie des Sciences has submitted a new 
system of musical notation, in which 27 characters re- 
place the 203 symbols now employed to represent the 
7 notes of the gamut in the 7 keys. 

In Tanaka's new keyed musical instrument for just 
intonation, the black keys are divided some into two 
and some into three parts, and one additional shorter 
and inner key is introduced between the E and F 
white keys. This arrangement gives 20 notes, which 
suffice for modulating into a reasonable number of 
keys with sharp signatures and to provide for modula- 
tions into keys with flat signatures when these and the 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 337 

sharp modulations are not wanted at the same time; six 
of the notes can be instantaneously changed at any- 
time. No matter what the key of the original com- 
position, it is played in the key of C. For players 
who cannot transpose at first sight from one key into 
any other, the piece will have to be recopied. By it 
any competent organist may, after a few minutes' ex- 
perience, and a quarter of an hour's practice, play 
any piece of music correctly in the true musical in- 
tonation, a result which has never been attained by 
any former instrument. The inventor is now engaged 
in making one with eight stops, and a simplified, eu- 
harmonic pedal clavier for the Prussian Government. 

EXHIBITIONS. 

It would hardly be possible that a year should 
occur without there being one or more exhibitions, 
national, international, or special, somewhere upon 
the face of the globe. Just now all interest centers 
upon the forthcoming Columbian Exhibition of 1893, 
w^hich is to take place in Chicago, and concerning 
which the daily papers keep the average reader suf- 
ficiently well-informed to at least relieve them of any 
charge of indifference or neglect. 

An exhibition at the London Crystal Palace, opened 
January 1, 1892, showing first, heavy electrical en- 
gineering for electric lighting ; second, the utiliza- 
tion of electric currents other than for lighting ; third, 
the generation and utilization of electric currents from 
primary batteries. 

There will be a naval exhibition in Liverpool, com- 



338 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

meneing February 1, 1892 ; and at this there will be 
shown many of the exhibits from the London Naval 
Exhibition. 

It is proposed to hold an International Exhibition 
at Douglas, Isle of Man, in 1892. 

A new method of showing machinery in catalogue 
or photographic illustrations is by the aid of a mirror 
placed back of the machine, the photograph being 
taken from a point high enough up to include both 
the front and the back views of the machine. 

The sand blast is being used for cleaning the marble 
outside of the United States Assay office in Wall 
Street, New York. The apparatus consists of a 
"gun" in the form of a sheet tin tube three feet long 
and two and a half inches in diameter, bent into a 
goose neck at one end and ending in a two-inch nozzle. 
The sand is fed through this tube from a hopper, and 
projected against the work by an air blast. With 
an air of pressure of two pounds per square inch at 
the nozzle, one square foot of marble is cleaned, 
being abraded to a depth of -^ to ^\ inch per minute. 

The large porcelain factories at Limoges have been 
experimenting on the reduction of the cost of firing. 
It is but $2.00 per ton in Bohemia, $2.60 in England, 
$6.90 in Limoges. The results of tests with oil were 
that no gases or smoke in any way discolored the 
china ; and in the muffles there was decided advant- 
age. The effect should be about 15 to 20 per cent, 
saving in the cost of manufacture. 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 339 

Compressed air is used at Portland, Or., to blow 
the dust out of the cushions and other lodging 
places of passenger cars, being supplied through an 
ordinary garden hose. 

Frugal Bavarians, by a strong electric light, attract 
insects and moths, and by a suction fan draw them 
into a small mill, which grinds them up with flour 
into poultry food. 

Dr. J. W. Clowes has devised a method of fasten- 
ing in artificial teeth between those which have at 
least the sides remaining. Cavities in the remaining 
teeth are worked out, and the amalgam is molded 
into these cavities, and also over the gum between 
the teeth, so as to press firmly thereon between the 
teeth, this amalgam being worked to resemble the 
teeth the places of which are supplied. This has 
also the effect of locking together the old natural 
teeth. 

Frederick R. Honey, Ph. B., shows that with the 
aid of a hyperbola any angle may be trisected. The 
chord of the arc being drawn and trisected and the 
chord produced ^ its length with f of the arc as a 
transverse axis, and with the J point and the f point 
as foci, construct a branch of a hyperbola, which will 
trisect all arcs having the common chord. 

The Prince of Monaco has had built for the study 
of oceanography a yacht of 650 tons displacement, and 
having engines, dynamos, and an ammonia freezing 
apparatus and a water still. There is a search light 



340 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

of 10,000 candle power. It would permit of sounding 
being made up to 8000 meters in depth. The Prince's 
object is to investigate the direction and the velocity 
of the great surface currents on the ocean. He has 
thrown over 1700 floats into the ocean between Eu- 
rope and America. 

The estimate of the population of the United States 
for 1900 is given by our Department of Labor as 
76,639,854. 

The improvement of the Potomac flats at Washing- 
ton has gone on until from the Capitol to the Virginia 
Channel is now one large park, in which there are the 
Botanical Garden, Medical Museum, Smithsonian In- 
stitution, Agricultural Department, Bureau of En- 
graving and Printing, and the Washington monu- 
ment. The cost so far has been $1,624,798 ; and the 
value of the lands recovered is $3,000,000. 

Alabama is building macadam roads, with the result 
that wherever they lead the cotton patch is disappear- 
ing and diversified farming taking its place. 

The great Leland Stanford, Jr., University was 
opened formally October 1. Four hundred and forty 
students were admitted, of whom 95 were girls. 
Eleven hundred applications for admission have been 
received. 

The American Screw. Company has established a 
branch in Leeds, England. 

The harvesting machine companies of the United 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 341 

States have formed a trust under the name of the 
American Harvester Company, having $35,000,000 
capital. They employ 15,000 men. 

Ocean post offices have been approved by our govern- 
ment and are in operation between this country and 
Germany ; the letters being sorted at sea in the same 
way as has been done for a long while in the railway 
post office service. 

A Danish engineer, Hanssen, proposes a metric 
system by which the incli and foot shall be increased 
to 1.000403 times their present length, leaving the 
ounce, pound, and imperial gallon the same. By this 
system the cubic foot would contain just 1000 ounces 
avoirdupois ; 16 cubic feet would be 100 imperial gal- 
lons, and weigh 100 pounds. 

A redwood plank, 16 feet 5 inches wide, 12 feet 5 
inches long, and 5 inches thick, about ninety 
per cent, being clear, has been shown ; being taken 
from a tree 35 feet in diameter and 300 feet high, the 
rings of which show it to have been 1500 years old. 
It conies from Humboldt County, Cal. 

During the past year an elm tree, 75 feet high and 
7 feet in circumference, was moved 12 miles, at Willa- 
mette, 111. A hole was chiseled through about 10 feet 
from the ground, and through this there was passed 
a steel bar, bearing upon heavy timber braces. 

The beginning of the second century of the Ameri- 
can patent system was celebrated by a convention of 
these interested. 



342 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

The largest elevators in the world will be these at 
Weehawken, N. J. They will lift 130 persons 
145 feet at each trip. They will be worked on the 
combined gravity and pressure system ; that is, by 
water from a closed overhead tank in which there is 
a pressure of air. • The cages will be 21 feet 6 inches 
long by 12 feet 6 inches wide, and 10 feet high. The 
working pressure is 180 pounds, and with this pressure 
and a load of 20,000 pounds the lift is at the rate of 
200 feet per minute. To enable quiet stopping a per- 
forated apron is attached to the piston, to gradually 
close the port as it reaches stroke end. As the main 
control valve is too large to be worked by hand, it is 
worked by a subsidiary valve and cylinder. The hand 
rope turns a wheel fixed to a shaft, on the end of which 
is a crank coupled by a rod to a beam connected at 
one end to the main valve spindle, and at the other end 
to the subsidiary valve spindle. Turning the wheel 
operates the subsidiary valve, which admits and ex- 
hausts pressure water from the underside of a subsidi- 
ary piston connected to the main valve. A triple safety 
gear is employed, 

There has been constructed in France a chronom- 
eter giving the y^oo °f a second. Its operation is 
based upon the use of a chronometer balance beating 
fifths of a second, a special mechanism causing the 
balance to describe at each beat a complete circle. 
The circle being divided into 200 parts, each of these 
represents yoV o" °f a second. By reason of the va- 
riation in the velocity of the balance at different por- 
tions of its stroke, the dial has divisions which are 
closer at the beginning than at the middle of the 



fcECOED OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 343 

travel. The large dial is divided into 300 parts, re- 
presenting fifths of a second ; and the smaller one 
shows hours and minutes. An electro-magnet, acting 
almost directly upon the balance, serves to set in 
motion or stop the mechanism instantly. A bolt 
brings the thousandths hand to zero, and sets the 
spiral so that the balance will move it instantly the 
current is broken. 

" The polar level " is a new integrating machine, 
analogous to the polar planimeter, for measuring 
areas. It takes advantage of the fact that the radius 
vector tracing any curve varies its length in propor- 
tion to the length, of arc multiplied by the cosine of 
the inclination of the tangent at every instant ; or 
e?r=cos. (pels. The instrument consists of a pair of 
bicycle wheels connected by framework to run on the 
curve of the ground, supporting a paper sheet moving 
as it goes under an arm carrying a pencil, which 
represents the radius vector. The pole is kept steady 
by a pendulum : but the arm itself is adjusted by a 
cam to the angle, as a line connecting the wheel 
centers gives the tangent of the curve of the ground 
at each instant. The integrating mechanism is a 
sliding wheel upon a revolving cone. By the use of 
the gear train the machine will level and plot a piece 
of ground on an exaggerated scale. This should 
reduce the work of leveling ground to simply that of 
wheeling around a machine about the size of a safety 
bicycle. 

A novel form of flexible tubing has been brought 
out by T. R. Almond, and described before the So- 



344 RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

ciety of Mechanical Engineers. It consists of coils 
of round wire, with triangular-shaped wire interposed 
between the coils. The triangular wire serves two 
purposes ; one to spread the coils apart, so that the 
pressure will be exerted on the contact surfaces ; the 
other to fill the irregularly shaped spaces between the 
coils of round wire, adjusting itself to the changed 
form of the spaces due to any given flexion. 

Szczeniowski and Piatkowski have brought out a 
continuous centrifugal separator, driven from beneath 
and turning 500 times per minute, with a very fine 
regulator for the discharge of the boiled mass. The 
first drops are discharged through one opening, the 
boiled mass freed from the drops through another ; 
the drained crystals, having remounted the entire 
filtering surface in the form of a truncated cone, meet 
with a cylindrical surface which affords a resistance 
to their escape, and finally they are turned into a 
circular hopper. 

An instrument specially devised for reading jour- 
nals that are printed in small type, consists of a con- 
cave mirror to give an enlarged image of the charac- 
ters, and which reflects the matter upon a small plane 
mirror lying upon the sheet of paper just above the line 
that it is desired to be read. As soon as the reading 
of the line is finished the apparatus is slid over it. 

A machine for making shoe strings out of paper 
has been invented in Philadelphia. 

A new lamp shade is made of aluminium and 



RECORD OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 345 

glass, and weighs less than five ounces. The shade is 
a combination of a parabolic with a plain radiating 
reflector, to which is attached a diffusion plate of 
ground glass, and the arrangement of these different 
parts is such as to direct the main portion of the rays 
into a given zone of illumination, while a minor part 
is radiated and diffused throughout the room. 

A new slide rule has been brought out, especially 
adapted to solve problems in electric wiring. 

A spring washer, got up by the Positive Nut 
Lock Washer Co., Limited, of London, has a rib 
of A section where it butts against the nut, and 
which, when the nut is screwed home, goes into and 
around the bolt threads. This is said to have orig- 
inated in America. 

Transparent set squares, curves, triangles, and pro- 
tractors, are now made of celluloid, and seem to be 
much liked by those who use them. 

A silent cab call which has been adopted in Lon- 
don shows a red light for a four-wheeler, and a green 
one for a hansom. 

An attachment to the ordinary mill sprinkling 
system has been produced, to give an alarm when one 
or more sprinklers open or leak. There is an ordi- 
nary check valve, the disk of which, when raised by 
the slightest movement of water, pushes a delicate 
rod into a cylinder filled with oil against a cam to 
which is connected by a spindle an arm, the friction 



346 REC0RI) OF SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS. 

roller of which, in moving upward, brings the upper 
end of a quadrant lever in contact with a spring, 
closing a circuit. 

The Bonwick siphon stopper does not require that 
the entire contents of a bottle shall be drawn off the 
first time it is opened. It consists of a glass plug 
and an India rubber ring. The latter seats itself in a 
deep groove around the plug, while its outer circum- 
ference rests in a groove in the bottle-neck. One 
end of the glass plug is chamfered so as not to 
obstruct the flow of liquid too much, while it is there ; 
there is a cross gate going through the groove. 
Normally the rubber ring makes an air-tight joint 
both with the plug and with the bottle. When 
there is pressure in the bottle this is tightened. To 
break the joint the plug is pressed inward, opening a 
passage at each side of the cross gate under the rub- 
ber ring. On relaxing the pressure on the plug the 
joint is again made, and the flow stopped. 

R. H. Harry, of London, England, has devised a 
band knife for cutting fabrics, in which the knife or 
saw is carried upon the peripheries of five large 
wheels, giving it equal and easy tension throughout its 
length. 

A new blow pipe, intended for jewelers and others of 
that class, has the advantage of being connected with 
the gas supply by a flexible India rubber tube, and 
of having the glass mouthpiece also connected by a 
smaller flexible tube, thus enabling the apparatus to 
be readily moved from point to point of the work. 



Record of scientific progress. 347 

A new saddle has a series of steel springs connect- 
ing the upper saddle tree, or seat, with the lower, to 
relieve the rider from constant jolting. The springs 
are cone shape, working within each other. 



THE END. 



INDEX. 



A BBREVIATIONS of the Elec- 
11 trie Units, 300 
Abt Rack Railway, 79 
Abt Rack Railway on the Matter- 
horn, 94 
Acadeinie des Science's System of 

Musical Notation, 336 
Accumulators, Electric, see Storage 

Batteries, 277 
Acid, Oxalic, in Blue Printing, 221 
Acid. Uric, in Causing Headaches, 

232 
Acids, Curcuma Test Paper for, 

214 
Acids, Diminishing the Excretion of 

Uric, 2:33 
Acme Electric Works' Electric 

Meter, 279 
Aeration in Water Works, 38 
Aerial Navigation, Cosmopolitan 

Prize for Essays on, 324 
Aeronauty, 323 
Agriculture, 326 
Air as a Condensing Medium for 

Steam Engines, 4 
Air-brake Hose, 86 
Air, Compressed, for Dusting Car 

Cushions, 339 
Air, Compressed, for Transmission 

of Power, 198, 199 
Air, Compressed, Treatment by, 

231 
Air Ship, Illinois, 324 
Alabama, Macadam Roads in, 340 
Alaskan Railway, 95 
Alaska, Reindeer in, 330 
Albumen for Removing Tannin 

from Tea, 214 
Albuquerque, Mineral Oil in, 137 
Alcohol for Washing Sugar, 212 
Alcohol Making, Springer's Pro- 
cess, 211 
Alloys, New, 147, 151 
Almond's Flexible Metal Tube, 19, 

343 
Alternating Currents, 296-297 
Alternating Electric Currents, 

Tesla on, 242 
Aluminium and Copper Alloys, 149 
Aluminium Boat, 55 



Aluminium Bucklers for French 
Troops, 315 

Aluminium, Elfect on Iron, 149 

Aluminium, Electrolytic Reduction 
of, 248 

Aluminium in Building Construc- 
tion, 132 

Aluminium in Steel Ingots, Arnold 
on, 149 

Aluminium Lamp Shade, 345 

Aluminium Making by Electricity, 
146 

American Camphor, 326 

American Cars in England, 87 

American Compound Locomotives, 
61 

American Patent System, Second 
Century of, 341 

American Screw Co. in England, 
340 

American Types of Iron Furnaces 
in England, 145 

American Water Works Associa- 
tion, Report on Standard Speci- 
fications for Cast Iron Water 
Pipes, 38 

Ammonia-Steam Condensing En- 
gine, 3 

Ammonia Water as a Fire Extin- 
guisher, 213 

Ammonite, 212, 315 

Amoo Daria Canal, 113 

Anaesthetic, Chloride of Ethyl as a 
Local, 234 

Anchors, Experiments with, 56 

Andean Tunnel, 117 

Anderson's Treatment of Consump- 
tion, 227 

Anders on the Influence of Street 
Width on the Death Rate from 
Phthisis, 228 

Angle, Trisecting, 339 

Aniline Colors, Photography in, 
218 

Annihilator, Smoke, 12 

Anisol for Diphtheria, 229 

Answer-Back Telegraph Call, 302 

Anthrax, Hunger as Favorable to 
Infection by, 234 

Anti-Corrosive for Ship Bottoms, 58 



349 



350 



INDEX. 



Anti-Dead-Center Device for Steam 
Engines, 4 

Anti-Incrustator and Lubricator, 10 

Antiseptic, Dead Sea Water as an, 
234 

Antimony in Victoria, 138 

Applications of Electric Motors, 
267 

Apyrite, 315 

Arbey's Tree Feller and Forest Log 
Cutting Machine, 179 

Arc and Incandescent Lamp Com- 
bination, 245 

Arc Focusing Electric Lights at the 
Eden Musee, 242 

Architecture and Building, 127 

Arc Light Cut Out, 283 

Arc Motor Governor, 267 

Ardencraig, The, 54 

Areopicnometer, Eichhorn's, 222 

Argentine Government, Cruiser 25 
de Mayo, 52 

Argentine Republic, Torpedo Boat 
for, 45 

Armor Plate Rolling Mill at Etscn, 
140 

Armor Steel, Experiments with, 
154 

Arms, Small, Tests of Magazine, 319 

Arnaud, Artificial Quinine. 215 

Arsenic, Effect on Iron, 149 

Artesian Well in Galveston, 136 

Artificial Cold, 205 

Artificial Ivory, 207 

Artificial Products, 206 

Artificial Quinine, 215 

Artificial Rubies, 206 

Artificial Teeth, Method of Fasten- 
ing, 339 

Artillery, Field, Smokless Powder 
for, 320 

Asbestos and India-rubber Gaskets, 
214 

Assistant Steam Cylinder for Marine 
Engines, 2 

Astronomy, 324 

Atkinson's Paper on Electric Min- 
ing Machinery, 270 

Audible Signal for Locomotive 
Cabs, 69 

Australia, Irrigation in, 328 

Austrian Rifles, 320 

Austrian Telephones, 307 

Austria, Number of Locomotives in, 
7 

Austria, Number of Steam Engines 
in, 7 

Automatic Brake-Shoe Wear Ad- 
juster, 84 

Automatic Electric Valve, 284 

Automatic Flood Alarm on the 
Seine, 39 

Automatic Hub-turning and Finish- 
ing Machine, 191 



Automatic Magazine Rifle, 319 

An tomatic Railway for Dundee Har- 
bor, 95 

Automatic Skein Setting and Fixing 
Machine, 193 

Automatic Spoke and Handle Lathe, 
of Defiance Machine Works, 183 

Automatic Spoke-driving Machine, 
192 

Automatic Spoke-turning and 
Squaring Lathes of Defiance Ma- 
chine Works, 182 

Automatic Starting Gear, 15 

Automatic Vacuum Brake Attach- 
ment for English Railway 
Trains, 82 

Automatic Water Gacge for Marine 
Boilers, 10 

Automatic W T heel-boxing Machine, 
191 

T> ABCOCK & WILCOX Sectional 

JJ Marine Boiler, 8 

Bacteriology, Cocoanut Juice as a 
Culture Food in, 234 

Balanced Steam Hydraulic Crane, 
18 

Baldwin Locomotive Works 1 Com- 
pound Locomotive, 62 

Baldwin Locomotive Works' Hy- 
draulic Forged Railwav Wheel 
Centers, 172 

Balloon , Expedition by, to the North 
Pole, 324 

Banana Flour, 329 

Bandknife, Cloth, 346 

Band Resaw, 179 

Baptist Missionary Society Steamer 
Goodwill, 45 

Barton, Irish Channel Tunnel, 120 

Bathurst, The, 45 

Batteries, McMillan's Primary, 274 

Batteries, Primary, 274 

Batteries . Secondary, for Electric 
Railways, 251 

Batteries, Storage, 276 

Batteries, Storage, Economy of, 278 

Battery, James' Storage, 276 

Battery, Sea W T ater for Boat Pro- 
pulsion, 275 

Battery, Storage, Cars Driven by in 
Philadelphia, 278 

Battery, Storage, Waddell-Entz's, 
276 

Bears Typesetting Machine, 239 

Beauchamp Tower's Marine Gun 
Platform, 57 

Beaumont's Feathering Screw Pro- 
Deller 55 

Becker & Stewart's Tall Tower, 128 

Beer as Affecting the Excretion of 
Uric Acid, 233 

Beer, Corn, 209 

Bee Taming by Electric W T ands, 300 



INDEX. 



351 



Behring and Kifasato on Diphtheria 
Microbes, 229 

Belknap's Soundings in the North 
Pacific, 304 

Bell, E. R., Dinner on Turkey that 
had been Frozen Ten Years, 204 

Bell, Magneto, 237 

Belting System for Dynamos, 248 

Belt Rivets, 21 

Benwith Siphon Stopper, 346 

Benzol, for Diphtheria, 229 

Bennett's Parcel Exchange System, 
252 

Berdan's Shell Fuse, 314 

Berlin, Electric Railways in, 254 

Berry & Son's Planing Machine, 156 

Bertram's Planing Machine, 156 

Bessemer on the Manufacture of 
Continuous Sheets of Wrought 
Iron and Steei Direct from Fluid 
Metal, 142 

Bessemer's Proposed Plan for Mak- 
ing Shipbuilding Plates, 55 

Bethlehem Iron Company, Guns 
made by, 319 

Bethlehem Iron Company's Steam 
Hammer, 139 

Bid well's Electric Heat Motor, 297 

Birmingham's Hydraulic Transmis- 
sion of Power, 198 

Bismuth, Salicylate of, for Typhoid 
Fever, 230 

BisselPs Tests of Coefficient of Fric- 
tion, 171 

Bit, Electric, 299 

Blackford Tower, 130 

Blackwall Tunnel, 115 

Bladder, Electric Lamps for Ex- 
amination of, 242 

Bladder, Gall, Condition of the Blood 
in Cancer of, 233 

Blast Powder for Coal Slack, 136 

Blast, Sand, for Cleaning Build- 
ings, 338 

Blood, Amount of Sugar in, 233 

Blood, Density of in Various Dis- 
eases, 233 

Blood, Injection of, for Lung Con- 
sumption, 228 

Blowing np the Iron Gates of the 
Danube, 34 

Blowpipe, Jewelers', 345 

Blue, Diamine, 215 

Blue, New Shades of, 214 

Blue Printing, Oxalic Acid in, 221 

Blue-Shortness, 154 

Boat Propulsion by Sea-Water Bat- 
tery, 275 

Bobbin Winding Machine, 195 

Boiler, Babcock & Willcox's Marine, 
8 

Boiler Explosions, 12 

Boiler, Seller's, 9 

Boiier, Spanish, 9 



Boiler, Water Tube, 9 

Boiler, Yarrow's, 9 

Boiler and Pipe Covering, 11 

Boiler Tube, Expanding Machine 
for Locomotive Work, 163 

Boiler Tubes, Ribbed, 10 

Boiling Point of Liquid Oxygen, 225 

Boiler's Harlem Bridge, 123 

Boston Electric Power Station, 250 

Boys' Method of Cutting Millimeter 
Screws, 171 

Bone Grafting, 235 

Book Type-Writer, 241 

Bordas on the Microbe of Rheuma- 
tism, 234 

Boric Acid for Inflammation of the 
Eyes. 231 

Boring Machine, 161 

Boston & Albany R. R.'s new Steel 
Rails, 75 

Bradley's Lumber Cutting Machine, 
173 

Brakes for Locomotives, 70 

Brake-Shoe Hanger, 70 

Brake-Shoe Wear Adjuster, 84 

Breast Works, Snow, 314 

Bridges with Lead Joints, 127 

Brewing, 209 

Bridge, Railway, at Rush Street, 
Chicago, 267 

Briquettes from Victorian Brown 
Coal, 18 

British Association of Civil Engi- 
neers, Atkinson's Paper Before, 
270 

British East African Railway, 95 

Bromley & Sons, Lace Curtain 
Manufacture, 196 

Brooks Locomotive Works' Com- 
pound Locomotive, 62 

Brown & Sharpe's Plain Milling Ma- 
chine, 156 

Brown & Sharpe's Polishing Wheel 
Stand, 161 

Brown & Sharpe's Surface Grind- 
ing Machine, 159 

Brown & Sharpe's Test Indicator, 
170 

Brown & Sharpe's Universal Grind- 
ing Machine, 159 

Brush Electric Generator for Trans- 
mission of Power, 247 

Brush Holder, Carbon, 249 

Brush's Windmill Electric Light 
Plant, 244 

Brush Twin Screw Torpedo Boat, 
45 

Buckland's Marine Boiler, 8 

Bucklers, Aluminium, 315 

Buildings, Cleaning with Sand 
Blast, 338 

Buizine's Process for the Purifica- 
tion of Water by Iron Sulphate, 
203 



352 



INDEX. 



Butler's Petroleum Motor Tricycle, 

15 
Bridges, 122 

Bureau, Signal Weather, 321 
Butter, Substitutes for, 206 

pAB Call, Silent Electric, 345 
^ Cailletet's Cryogene, 205 
Cailletetis Method of Connecting 
Metal to Glass or Porcelain, 224 
Caillot's Pressure Gauge at the 

Eiffel Tower, 335 
Cable, Sub-Marine, from Pernam- 

buco to Senegal, 304 
California, Olive Oil in, 329 
California Tin, 137 
Call, Cab, Silent Electric, 345 
Call, Telegraphic Answer-back, 302 
Cameras, Detective Photographic, 

220 
Campbell's Cotton Picking Ma- 
chine, 328 
Camphor, American, 326 
Camphor Refining in Japan, 204 
Canadian Pacific Bridge at Milford, 

126 
Canadian Pacific Railway, Fast Run 

on, 99 
Canadian Society of Civil Engineers, 

CortheU's Paper Before, 113 
Canaigre, 210 

Canal to the Caspian Sea, 113 
Canals, 106 

Canal, Suez. Electric Light on, 244 
Cancer of the Gall Bladder, Con- 
dition of the Blood in, 233 
Cancer, Quantity of Sugar in the 

blood in, 233 
Cannons— see also Guns. 
Cannons, Rapid Fire, for Russia, 318 
Cantharidate of Potash, as a Cure of 

Consumption, 228 
Cape Mail Line Steamer, 51 
Capri fication of Figs, 326 
Carbon Brush Holder, 249 
Carbon Cores for Iron Casting, 151 
Carbon, Effect on Iron, 149 
Car Cushions, Dusting with Com- 
pressed. Air, 339 
Carding Engines, Stop Motion for, 

196 
Caret Guns for Japan. 318 
Car Heater, Electric, 285 
Car Journal Oiler tor Norfolk & 

Western Railway, 84 
Car Mortiser and Ten oner. 178 
Carnegie's Cold Saw for Metals, 163 
Carpenter on the Transmission of 
Heat Through Cast Iron Plates, 
225 
Carriage, Morrison's Electric, 296 
Carriage, Steam, S^rpollet's, 6 
Cars Driven by Storage Batteries, 
278 



Cars, Electric, Safety Fender for, 

254 
Carson's Parachute, 324 
Carulla on Heating Mild Steel, 144 
Car Ventilation, 83 
Carving and Routing Machines, 185 
Celluloid Set Squares. 345 
Celluloid, SubAituie for, 207 
Cement Lining for Steam Boilers, 

11 
Cement, Portland Cement as a Base 

for Electrotypes, 240. 
Center-board Yachts, 41 
Central African Railway. 90 
Central R. R. Tunnel/ Ventilation 

of, 117 
Centrifugal Separator, Continuous, 

344 
Casella & Co.'s New Shades of 

Blue, 214 
Cast Iron Cutting Tools, 173 
Cast Iron, Transmission of Heat 

Through, 225 
Cataract Construction Company, 22 
Cattle Car, 81 
Cattle Steamer, 48 
Caustic Soda, Manufacture of by 

Electricity, 202 
Cavner's Smoke-Consuming Loco- 
motive, 66 
Cazenave on Vine Pruning. 327 
Chain-Welding Machine, Electric, 

299 
Charmines. Electric Power Installa- 
tion, 273 
Check Chamber for Locomotive 

Boilers, 70 
Chibout's Electric Telethermome- 

ter, 286 
Chicago & Alton Smoke-Consum- 

' ing Locomotive, 66 
Chicago & Northwestern Railway, 

71 
Chicago & N. W. Railway, Fast 

Run on, 97 
Chicago, Electric Motor at Rush St. 

Bridge, 267 
Chicago, Electric Railway on Ful- 

lerton Avenue, 254 
Chicago Exposition, Seesaw Tower 

for, 130 
Chicago Folding Bridge, 126 
Chicago, Love's Electric Conduit 

System in, 250 
Chicago, Niagara Power at, 199 
Chicago Sewage Canal, 111 
Chicago to Liverpool, 331 
Chicago Tall Tower, 128 
Chignecto Ship Railway, 332 
Chilian-Argentine Tunnel, 117 
Chloride of Ethyl as a Local Anaes- 
thetic, 234 
Chloride of Mercury in Diphtheria, 

230 



INDEX. 



353 



Chlorine, Manufacture of by Elec- 
tricity, 202 
Chlorine Water for Diphtheria, 229 
Chloroform Water for Diphtheria, 

229 
Chromium, Effect on Iron, 149 
Chronometer Giving the 100th of a 

Second, 343 
Chronophotography, 219 
Circlip, the, 164 
Circuits, Long Telegraphic, Feats 

on, 303 
Circulating Filters, Norris'. 208 
Cire Perdue Process of Bronze Cast- 
ing. 151 
Cirrhosis of the Liver, Condition of 

the blood in, 233 
City of New York, Rapid Passage, 54 
City of Pai'is, Steam Engines on, 2 
Civil Engineers, CortheH's Paper 

Before, 113 
Clapham's New Design of Vessel, 42 
Clark, Thomas C, oil Railway 

Tracks, 75 
Clarke's Novel Tandem Marine En- 
gine, 3 
Cleaner, Track Electric, 255 
Cleaning Buildings with Sand Blast, 

338 
Cleveland Water Works, Steel In- 
take Tunnel, 119 
Clocks Run by the Earth's Elec- 
tricity, 278 
Cloth Band-Knife, 346 
Clowe's Method of Fastening Arti- 
ficial Teeth, 339 
Coal Cutters, Electric, 271 
Coal, Handling by Steam, 20 
Coal Production of the United 

States, 138 
Coast Line, Railway Defense for, 

314 
Cobalt, Effect on Iron, 149 
Cocoarut Juice as a Culture Food 

in Bacteriology, 234 
Coiled Wire, Doing Away with the 

Set of, 173 
Collender's Electric Pyrometer, 287 
Collier Audible Telephone, 305 
Colorado Automatic Refrigerating 

Co., 205 
Cold Saw for Metals, 163 
Color Photography, 215 
Color Printing, Oldfield's Improve- 
ments in, 238 
Columbian Fair, see World's Fair 

of 1S93. 
Columbian Iron Works, 50 
Columbia River Steel Bridge, 122 
Commercial Manufacture of Ozone, 

202 
Commingler for Car Heaters, 86 
Committee on Compound Locomo- 
tives, 61 



Compound Hydraulic Plunger Pump 
38 

Compound-Wound Dynamo with 
Drum Armature, 246 

Compressed Air for Transmission 
of Power, 198, 199 

Compressed Air Treatment, Corning 
on,- 231 

Compound Direct Acting Engine, 
5 

Compound Independent Air and 
Circulating Pumps, 56 

Compound Locomotives, 61 

Compound Locomotives for Central 
R. R. of Brazil, 73 

Compound Locomotive for Grand 
Trunk Railway of Canada, 64 

Compound Locomotive for Mexican 
Central Railway, 63 

Compound Locomotive for North- 
ern Railway of France, 65 

Compound Steam Road Rollers, 3 

Compressed Air for Dusting Car 
Cushions, 339 

Condensing Engine, Ammonia- 
Steam, 3 

Condensing Medium for Steam En- 
gines, Air as, 4 

Conduit, Love'sElectric, in Chicago, 
250 

Conduits, Underground, Threading 
Device for, 253 

Consumption, Cure of by Canthari- 
date of Potash, 228. 

Consumption, Anderson's Treat- 
ment of, 227 

Consumption of the Lungs, Treat- 
ment by Injecting Blood, £28 

Continuous Action Retorts of the 
Mechanical Retorts Co., 200 

Continuous Centrifugal Separator, 
344 

Continuous Railway Crossing, 77 

Continuous Shaft Lubricator, 4 

Conveyor for Coal, 21 

Copper and Antimony Alloy, 150 

Copper and Asbestos Gaskets, 172 

Copper, Effect on Iron, 149 

Copper Mining in Japan. 135 

Copper Pipes, Electrolytic, 288 

Cordero's Process of Washing 
Sugar with Alcohol, 212 

Cork as a Boiler and Pipe Covering, 
11 

Corinth Ship Canal, 110 

Corliss Engine Dash Pots, 3 

Corliss Gear, 3 

Corn Beer, 209 

Cornell University, Experiments on 
the Effect of Electricity on 
Plant Life, 294 

Corner Block Mactrne, 185 

Corning on Compressed Air, Treat- 
ment, 231 



354 



INDEX. 



Cortlicll, E. L , on an Enlarged 
Water Way from the Northwest 
to the Atlantic, 118 

Cosmopolitan Magazine, Prizes for 
Essays on Aerial Navigation. 
304 

Costa Rican Telephones, 307 

Cotes, Dove, Military, 31G 

Cotton Manufacture, 196 

Cotton-Picking Machine, Camp- 
bell's, 328. 

Cotton Seed Oil, Absorption of 
Melted Lead by, 214 

Cotton Seed Oil Paint, 214 

Cough, Whooping, Treatment of, 
231 

Countersink Drilling Machine, 157 

Cowles on Ferro- Aluminium in 
Iron Castings, 151 

Cramp & Sons, 50 

Cross Cutting Sawing Machine, 179 

Crossley's Automatic Starting Gear 
for Gas Engines, 15 

Croton Dam, 33 

Croup, see Influenza, 231 

Crow's Peak Tunnel, 116 

Cruisers, United States, 50 

Cryogene, Cailletet's, 205 

Cuenod, Sautter &Co.'s Project for 
Utilizing Niagara, 23 

Cuenod, Sautter & Co.'s Electric 
Transmission at Oyonnax. 273 

Culture Food in Bacteriology, 
Cocoanut Juice as, 234 

Cunard Line Vessels, 52 

Cuprein in the Manufacture of Ar- 
tificial Quinine, 215 

Curcuma Test Paper for Acids, 
214 

Cure for Phylloxera, 329 

Currents, Alternating Electric, 236- 
297 

Currents, Alternating Electric, 
Tesla on, 242 

Current Regulator, Tomlinson's 
Electric, 281 

Current Transformer, Lehmeyei's, 
281 

Cushions, Car, Dusting with Com- 
pressed Air, 339 

Cutters, Coal, Electric, 271 

Cutting Lumber Without Saws, 17'3 

Cutting-Tools, 173 

Cut Out for Arc Lights, 283 

Cyanide of Mercury in Diphtheria, 
229 

Cyclostat, Thury's, 222 

"TiAHL Slow Speed Electric Rail- 
XJ way Motor, 257 
Dam Across St. Clair River, 31 
Damming Niagara, 31 
Dandelion for Silk Worms, 330 
Pansk, C.,206 



Dark Room, Developing Photo- 
graphy Without, 220 

Dash Pots for Corliss Engines, 3 

Deacon & Siemens' Plan for Util- 
izing Niagara, 25 

Dead Sea Water as an Antiseptic, 
234 

Dean Compound Locomotive, 62 

De Bellefonds' Plan for Increasing 
the Summer Supply of the Nile, 
30 

Deck Drilling of the Hydra, 268 

Defenses of New York Harbor, 308 

Defease, Railway for Coast Line, 
314 

Defiance Machine Works 1 Double 
Automatic Rim-Strip Equaliz- 
ing Machine, 189 

Defiance Machine Works' Rim and 
Felloe-Rounding Machine, 189 

Defiance Rim Packing and Cutting- 
Off Machine, 190 

Demeny's Chronophotograph, 219 

Demolishing Rocks Under Water. 35 

Density of the Human Blood in Dis- 
ease, 233 

Denver, Supplying Cold by Street 
Mains in, 205 

De Place's Schiseophone, 291 

Deptford Station, Dynamos at, 246 

Des Moines S. R. W. Co.'s Electric 
Track Sweeper and Cleaner, 255 

Detective Photograph Cameras, 220 

Detroit Tunnel, 119 

Developing Photographs without a 
Dark Room, 220 

Device for Steam Engines, Anti- 
Dead-Center, 4 

Dewar on the Boiling Point of 
Liquid Oxygen, 225. 

Dewey's Electric Heating Floor 
Mat, 300 

Diabetes, Condition of the Blood in, 
234 

Diamine Blue, 215. 

Diamonds in Demerara, 137 

Diamond Tooth Stone Saw, 19 

Differential Gear for Electric Ele- 
vators, 267 

Diphtheria, Various Remedies for, 
229 

Diphtheria, Loeffler's Treatment of 
with Mercuric Chloride of Mer- 
curic Cyanide, 229 

Diphtheria, Sydney-Turner's Treat- 
ment of with Paraffin Oil, 229 

Direct Production of Electricity, 
274 

Dirigible Air Ship, 324 

Disappearing Turrets, 318 

Dixon's Process of Making Alumin- 
ium by Electricity, 146 

Docking Slips, 58 

Dodd Water Wheel, 39 



INDEX. 



355 



Dog, for Saw Mill, 180 

Double-Acting Drill, 79 

Double Deck Propeller Ferryboat, 
47 

Double End Tenoning Machine, 
Egan Co.'s, 178 

Double Latch Reversing Lever for 
Locomotives, 69 

Double Locomotive Boiler for.East- 
ern Railway of Fiance, 72 

Double Rip and Cross-Cut Sawing 
Machine, 179 

Dovecotes, Military, 316 

Drainage Tunnel for the Valley of 
Mexico, 117 

Dresden, Compressed Air for Trans- 
mission of Power in, 199 

Dressing Rack, 194 

Drill, Electric Mining, 271 

Drilling Machines, 157 

Drilling the Deck of the Hydra, 268 

Drill Press, Electrically-Driven, 268 

Drought in Russia, 327 

Drum Armature in Compound 
Wound Dynamo, 246 

Dubois Insecticide, 213 

Dujardin-Beumetz' Treatment of 
Typhoid Fever, 229 

Dunham's Plan for Damming 
Niagara, 31 

Duplex Steel Rail, 78 

Duplex Telegraphic Instruments, 
304 * 

Dupont& Co., Smokeless Powder, 
213 

Durozoi's Hydraulic Ram, 40 

Dusting Car Cushions with Com- 
pressed Air, 339 

Dynamite Cruiser Vesuvius, 55 

Dynamo for Electrolytic Reduction 
of Aluminium, 248 

Dynamo-Generator, Railway, 261 

Dynamos, Belting, System for, 248 

Dynamos, Ferranti's, at Deptford 
Station, 246 

Dynamos, Recent, 246 

Dynamo, Siemens' Compound 
Wond. 246 

Dynamo, Thomson-Houston, Driv- 
ing Steam Pump Through Water 
Motor, 268 

Dynamo, Willson's 1000 H. P., 248 

Dynamo, Winkler's, 247 

EAST River Tunnel, 119 
Eckstein's Substitute for Glass, 
207 

Eclipses in 1893 

Economy of Storage Batteries, 278 

Eden Musee, Arc Focusing Electric 
Lights at, 242 

Edgar Thomson Steel Works, 
Record-breaking in Steel Con- 
verting, 145 



Edinburgh, Rock Shattering at, 35 

Edison Electric Furnace, 274 

Edison Kinetograph, 220 

Edison Power Station, N. Y., 249 

Egan Co., Automatic Spoke Lathes, 
181 

Egan Co.'s Band Resawing Ma- 
chine, 179 

Egan Co.'s Double End Tenoning 
Machine, 178 

Egan Co. , Universal Wood Worker, 
187 

Eggs as Affecting the Excretion of 
Uric Acid, 233 

Eichhorn's Areopicnometer, 222 

Eickenmeyer's Electric Street Rail- 
way Motor, 256 

Eiffel Tower Outdone, 128 

Eiffel Tower, Pressure Gauge at, 
335 

Elbe, Profiling of Bed, 39 

Electrical Processes in Metallurgy, 
146 

Electricallv-Driven Drill Presses, 
268 

Electricity, 241 

Electricity, Direct Production of, 
274 

Electricity, Effect of on Plant Life, 
294 

Electricity in Preserving Wines, 290 

Electricity for Working Pile 
Drivers, 269 

Electricity Meter of Acme Works, 
279 

Electricity Meter, Teague's, 279 

Electric Accumulators, see Storage 
Batteries, 280 

Electric Bit for Stopping Runaway 
Horses, 299 

Electric Cab Call, 345 

Electric Car Heater, 285 

Electric Carriage, 296 

Electric Chain-Welding Machine, 
299 

Electric Cloth-Cutting Device, 285 

Electric Coal Cutters, 271 

Electric Conduit System in Chicago, 
Love' 8, 250 

Electric Currents, Alternating, Tesla 
on, 242 

Electric Dredging and Amalgamat- 
ing Machine, 133 

Electric Drilling Machines, 271 

Electric Elevators, Differential 
Gear for, 267 

Electric Exercising Machine, 288 

Electric Exhibition in London, 337 

Electric Haulage, 252 

Electric Heating, Floor Mats for, 300 

Electric Heat Motor, 297 

Electric House Wiring, 284 

Electric Incineration of Human Re- 
mains, 291 



356 



INDEX. 



Electric Iron -smelting, 290 
Electric Kites, 291 
Electric Lamp fur Lantt rn Projec- 
tion. 244 
Electric Lamp in St. Catherine's 

Point Lighthouse, 244 
Electric Launch {Service on the 

Spree, 333 
Electric Light, 242 
Electric Light on the Suez Canal, 

244 
Electric Lighting in Connellsville 

Mines, 136 
Electric Locomotive, 252 
Electric Locomotive Headlights on 

the C. H. & D. R. R., 292 
Electrical Manufacture of Chlorine, 

202 
Electric Measuring, 278 
Electric Meter, Recording, Freres' 

278 
Electric Meter, Perry's, 278 
Electric Mining Drill, 271 
Electric Mining Machinery, 270 
Electric Mining Motor, 266 
E ectric Motors, 265 
Electric Motors, Application of, 267 
Electric Motor at Rush St. Bridge, 

Chicago, 267 
Electric Motor Truck, Equalizing, 

262 
Electric Motor, Wimshurst's Static, 

269 
Electric Photographic Timer, 287 
Electric Power for Driving Drills, 

268 
Electric Power Installation at 

Oyonnax, 272 
Electric Power Stations, 249 
Electric Pressure Indicator, 280 
Electric Projecting Lamp, 245 
Electric Pumps, 271 
Electric Purification of Water, 289 
Electric Railway Cars, Safety 

Fender tor, 254 
Etectric Railway, Gordon's, 251 
Electric Railway in Honolulu, 254 
Electric Railway, Love's, 254 
Electric Railway Lamp, 243 
Electric Railway Motors, 255 
Electric Railway Motor, Dahl's 

Slow Speed, 257 
Electric Railway Motor, Gearless, 

259 
Electric Railway, Vienna-Pesth, 254 
Electric Railway on Fnllerton Ave- 
nue, Chicago, 254 
Electric Railways, 250 
Electric Railways at the World's 

Fair of 1893, 253 
Electric Railways in Berlin, 254 
Electric Railways, Secondary Bat- 
teries for, 251 
Electric Street Car, 277 



Electric Street Railway Motor, Eick- 

enmeyer's, 256 
Electric Street Railway Motor, Hen- 
ry's, 255 
Electric Soldering Iron, 288 
Electric Telethermometer, 286 
Electric Time Stamp, 285 
Electric Tinning, 290 
Electric Track Sweeper and Cleaner, 

255 
Electric Train Order System, 105 
Electric Transmission of Power at 

Oerlikon Works, 271 
Electric Truck, Loose Wheel, 261 
Electric Units, Abbreviations of, 300 
Electric Valve, Automatic, Electric, 

284 
Electric Wands in Bee-taming, 300 
Electric Wiring, Slide Rule for, 345 
Electrolytic Reduction of Alumin- 
ium, 248 
Electrolytic Copper Pipes. 288 
Electro-magnet for Lifting Pig Iron, 

292 
Electro-magnet in High Suigery, 

300 
Electro-mechanical Signal Control, 

105 
Electroplating, Testing Hardness of, 

335' 
Electro-Technisch Verein, Alternat- 
ing Currents Shown to, 296 
Electrotypes, Cement Base for, 240 
Electrodes, Vacuum Tubes Without, 

300 
Elevator in Weehawken, N. J., 18 
Elevators, Electric, Differential 

Gear for. 266 
Elevators, La gest in the World, 

343 
Eleven Thousand-mile Sailing Ship 

race, 54 
Elmore, Electrolytic Copper Pipes, 

288 
Elsmore-He'singborg Tunnel, 121 
Emperor of Japan's Rapid Passage, 

54 
Engineering in India, 32 
Engineering, Marine, 40 
Engineering, Mechanical, 13 
Engineering, Steam, 1 
Engine, Ether, 15 
Engines for Waterworks, 38 
Engine, Anti-Dead Center Device 

for, 4 
Engine, Clarke's Tandem Marine. 3 
Engine, Compound Direct Acting. 5 
Engine, Corliss, Dash Pots for, 3 
Engine, Gas and Petroleum, 14 
Engine, Hydraulic, 22 
Engine, Marine, Assistant Cylinder 

^for, 2 
Engines, Number of, in the World, 7 
Engine, see also Locomotive. 



INDEX. 



•357 



England, American Screw Co. in, 
340 

England, First Overhead Railway in, 
254 

Epilepsy, Uric Acid in, 232 

Equalizing Electric Motor Truck, 
262 

Escher, Wyss & Co.'s Plan for Util- 
izing Niagara, 27 

Ether Engine, 15 

Ethyl, Chloride of, as a Local Anaes- 
thetic, 234 

Eucalyptus, Oil of, for Diphtheria, 
229 

Europe, Nova Scotia Route to, 331 

Evening Device for Yarn Racks, 194 

Examination of the Movements of 
the Lips in Speaking, 219 

Exchange, Parcels, 252 

Exercising Machines, Electric, 288 

Exhauster, Steam Jet, 5 

Exhaust, Nozzle, 73 

Exhibitions, 337 

Experiments with Fuel in Porcelain 
Factories, 338 

Explosives, 212, 315, 320 

Extinguisher, Ammonia as a Fire, 
213 

Eyes, Inflammation of, Boric Acid 
for, 231 

"FACTORIES, Porcelain, Experi- 

x ments with Fuel in, 338 

Fair, Columbian, see World's Fair 

of 1893. 
Fair, World's, of 1893, Electric 

Railways, 253 
Fairfield & Co., 52 
Fastening Artificial Teeth, 339 
Fast Feed Planer and Matcher of 

Rogers & Co., 187 
Fast Fishing Steamer, 48 
Fast Railway Runs, 96 
Feathering Srrew Propeller, 55 
Feats, Telegraphic, on Long Cir- 
cuits, 303 
Feed Water Heater and Purifier, 72 
Fender, Safety, for Electric Rail- 
way Cars, 254 
Fermentation Hastener, 210 
Ferranti Dynamos at Deptford Sta- 
tion, 246 
Ferranti Dynamos, Steam Pipes for, 

11 
Ferryboat on the Pacific Coast, 49 
Fever, Typhoid, Dujardin-Beau- 

nietz' Treatment of, 229 
Fever, Tvphoid, Condition of the 

Blood in, 234 
Field Artillery, Smokeless Powder 

for, 320 
Fifteenth Meridian Time in Ger- 
many and Austria, 106 
Figs, Caprification of, 326 



Filtering and Purification of Water, 

208 
Filters, Circulating, 208 
Filters, "Torrent," 208 
Firearms, 317 
Fire-Door Opener, 70 
Fire Engine, Steam. Shand, Mason 

& Co.'s, 6 
Fire Extinguisher, Ammonia Water 

as, 213 
First Overhead Railway in England, 

254 
First Steel Vessel on Lake Michi- 
gan, 50 
Fish as Affecting the Excretion of 

Uric Acid, 233 
Fishing Steamer, 48 
Fiske's Position and Range Finder, 

313 
Flanged Rails for Indian Railways, 

76 
Flats, Potomac, Improvements in, 

340 
Flaws. Internal, Detected in Metal, 

291 
Fletcher's Report on Boiler Explo- 
sions, 12 
Flexible Lamp Support, 244 
Flexible Metal Tube, 19 
Flexible Steam Joints for Trains, 

102 
Floor Mat for Electric Heating, 

300 
Flour, Banana, 329 
Flowers, Effect of Electricity on 

Growth, 294 
Fluid Alarm, Automatic, 39 
Fiuviograph, 292 

Flying Machines. Hargrove'?, 323 
Flying Machines, Maxim's, 323 
Fog Signals, 334 

Food, Poultry, Moth Meal for, 339 
Foote, A. E., on Meteoric Iron in 

Arizona, 134 
Foreign Compound Locomotives, Q2 
Forges de Montataire, Nickel and 

Iron Alloys at, 148 
Forgings for the Fall River Steamer 

Puritan, 143 
Forging Press, 172 
Forgings in Iron or Steel, 139 
Forgings, Largest Ever Made in the 

United States, 143 
Foreign Bodies, Laparotomy Not 

Necessary in Swallowing, 237 
Foreign Bodies, Removal of from 

the System by Potatoes, 237 
Forked Belt Rivets, 21 
Fortifications on Plumb Island. 312 
Fortifications on Sandy Hook, 312 
Fortis, 316 

Foundry Practice, 151 
Four-Cylinder Compound Locomo- 
tive, 65 



558 



INDEX. 



Franklin Institute Committee on 
Compound Locomotives, 61 

France, Number of Locomotives in, 
7 

France, Number of Steam Engines 
in, 7 

Freight Car Seal, 85 

Freight Car Truck, 85 

Freight Locomotive, Thomson- 
Houston, 262 

Fremy & Verneuirs Artificial 
Rubies, 206 

French Academy of Sciences, 
Trouve's Paper before, 275 

French Metal and Wood Gearing, 170 

French Troops, Aluminium Buck- 
lers for, 315 

Frere's Recording Electric Meter, 
279 

Frere's Stethoscope, 279 

Frozen Turkey, Dinner on, 204 

Fruit Cars, 82 

Fuel Consumption of Gas Engines, 
14 

Fuel, Experiment with, 338 

Fullerton Avenue Electric Railway, 
Chicago, 254 

Furnace, Edison's Electric, 274 

Furnace for Boilers, Spanish, 9 

Furnace Mouth Protector, 11 

Fiirst Bismarky Rapid Passages of, 
53 

Fuse, Shell, Berdan's, 314 

Fusing Points, Instruments for De- 
termining, 224 

Fuso-ken, Lacquering, 58 

/?< ALL-BLADDER, Condition of 

^ the Blood in Cancer of, 233 

Ganga Ram's Improved 'Well Lin- 
ing, 36 

Gang Gainer and Groover, Bentel & 
Margedant Co.'s, 174 

Ganz & Co.'s Plan for Utilizing Ni- 
agara, 27 

Gfias and Petroleum Engine, 14 

Gasket of Asbestos and India Rub- 
ber, 214 

Gas, Natural, Ice-Making by Ex- 
pansion of, 205 

Gastric Ulcer, Ice Cream as a Cure 
for, 235 

Gauge, Pressure, at Eiffel Tower, 
335 

Gauge for Assembling Steam En- 
gines, 171 

Gear-Cutting, Swazey's System of, 
167 

Gear, Differential, for Electric Ele- 
vators, 267 

Geared Motor, Water-Tight, 260 

Gear Wheels, 169 

Gearless Electric Railway Motor, 
259 



General Physics, 221 

General Mechanical Engineering. 
13 

Generator, Electric, for Transmis- 
sion of Power, Brush's. 247 

Generator, Dynamo, Railway, 261 

Geometrical Carving Machine, 185 

German Locomotive Coupler, 102 

German Safety Locomotive Ash 
Pans, 69 

Germany, Number of Locomotives 
in, 7 

Germany, Number of" Steam En- 
gines in, 7 

Glass, Connecting to Metals, 224 

Glass for Optical Instruments, 207 

Glass, Substitute for, 207 

Gold, Artificial, 205 

Good body's Anti-Incrustator and 
Lubricator, 10 

Goolden's Electric Mining Motor, 
266 

Gordon Electric Railway System, 
251 

Goss' New Motor Truck, 202 

Gouge and Cutter Grinder, 159 

Government Timber Tests, 329 

Governor, Arc Motor, 267 

Grafting, Bone, 235 

Grafting, Skin, 236 

Grazi-Tsaritsin Railway Compound 
Locomotive, 66 

"Great Britain, ''"Locomotive, Fast 
Run of , 100 

Great Circle Route for Submarine 
Cables, 304 

Greatest Printing Press in Exist- 
ence, 217 

Greene's Kinetographic Machines, 
219 

Gregg on the Value of Terpene 
Iodide in Lung Diseases, 228 

Grimaux' & Arnaud's Artificial 
Quinine, 215 

Grimshaw on the Removal of Tan- 
nin from Tea. 214 

Grinding and Polishing Machines, 
158 

Grinding Machines, 159 

Grip, see Influenza, 231 

Groth's Process of Electrical Tan- 
ning, 290 

Growth of Plants, Effect of Elec- 
tricity on, 294 

Guard, Lightning, 282 

Gunpowder, Smokeless, 213 

Guns, Caret, for Japan, 318 

Guns for U. S. Government, 319 

Guns, see also Cannon. 

TTAGUE-SCHEVENINGEN Rail- 
J ~ L way, Storage Batteries on, 277 
Haig on the Prevention of Suicides 
and Murders, 232 



INDEX. 



859 



Hand-Car Wheel, 85 
Handling Coal by Steam, 20 
Hansen's Proposed Metric System, 

341 
Harbor, New York, Defenses of, 

308 
Harry's Cloth Band-Knife, 346 
Hardness of Electroplating, Test- 
ing, 335 
Hargrove's Flying Machine, 323 
Harvesting Machine Trust, 341 
Harlan & Hollings worth Co.'s Fish- 
ing Steamer, 48 
Hartford Steel Ties on the N. Y. C. 

&H.R. R.,77 
Hatfield on Steels, 148 
Haulage, Walker's System of Elec- 
tric, 252 
Hawksworth's Locomotive Fire- 

Door Opener, 70 
Hay Fever, Treatment of, 231 
Hay Fever, Influenza and Whoop- 
ing Cough, 230 
Hay Fever, Rixa's Treatment of, 

230 
Headlights, Locomotive, Electric, 

on the C. II. &D.R. R., 292 
Heater, Car, Electric, 285 
Heat for Street Railways, 82 
Heating by Electric Floor Mat, 

300 
Heating Mild Steel, 144 
Heat Motor, Electric, 297 
Heat, Transmission of Through 

Cast-iron Plates, 225 
Heavy Train Haulage on the Phila- 
delphia & Reading Railway, 100 
Held's Gold Colored Alloy of Copper 

and Antimony, 148 
Helicoid Windlass, 18 
Helix Forming Machine, 152 
Helsingborg-Elsinore Tunnel, 121 
Hemp, Effect of Electricity on 

Growth of, 295 
Henry's Electric Street Motor, 255 
Herstey on Ice Cream as a Cure for 

Gastric Ulcer, 235 
Herreshoff's Dilemma. 41 
Hilgard on the Underflow of Cali- 
fornia Gravel Beds. 37 
Hillairet & Bouvier's Plan for Utiliz- 
ing Niagara, 24 
Hoboken,N. Y., Bridge, 121 
Hofmeister's Fermentation Haste- 

ner, 210 
Hoisting Apparatus, Pneumatic, 16 
Holden's Method of Scouring WVer 

Ways, 34 
Hollow Forgings in Iron or Steel, 

139 
Hollow Stay Bolts, 141 
Honey's Method of Trisecting an 

Angle by a Hyperbola, 339 
Honolulu Electric Railways, 254 



Hopfner's Method of Extracting 
Silver and Copper by Electroly- 
zation, 146 

Horse, Stopping by an Electric Bit, 
299 

House Wiring, Electric, 284 

Houston on Rain Making, 321 

Hub-Turning and Finishing Ma- 
chine, 191 

Hudson River Suspension Bridge, 
121 

Human Blood, Amount of Sugar in, 
233 

Human Remains, Incineration by 
Electricity, 291 

Hunger as Favorable to Infection 
by Anthrax, 234 

Huron-Ontario Ship Railway, 332 

Hyaline, 207 

Hydra, Drilling the Deck of the, 268 

Hydrastis, in Phthisis, 227 

Hydraulic Engineering, 22 

Hydraulic Engineering in India, 32 

Hydraulic Forging Press, Gallo- 
way's, 172 

Hydraulic Forged Railway Wheel 
Centers, Vauclain's, 172 

Hydraulic Railway Car Buffers, 87 

Hydraulic Ram, 40 

Hydraulic Sewer Flusher, 39 

Hydraulic Transmission of Power. 
198 

Hyperbola in Trisecting an Angle, 
339 

TCE-CREAM as a Cure for Gastric 

x Ulcer, 235 

Ice-Making by Expansion of Nat- 
ural Gas, 205 

Illinois Air Ship, 324 

Illustration, Snowing Machinery in, 
338 

Important New Vessels, f 

Improving the Missouri River, 34 

Improving Tampico Harbor, 33 

Incandescent and Arc Lamp, Com- 
bination, 245 

Incandescent Electric Lamps, Re- 
pairing, 243 

Incandescent Lamp Socket, 243 

Incineration of Human Remains by 
Electricity, 291 

Increasing the Summer Supply of 
the Nile, 29 

Independent Air and^ Circulating 
Pumps, 56 

Indian Railways, 76 

India, Route to, 330 

India Rubber and Asbestos Gaskets, 
214 

Indicator, Electric Pressure, 280 

Indicator. Steam Engine, 5 

Industrial Processes, New, 202 

Industrial Technology, 200 



300 



IXDEX. 



Infection by Anthrax, Hunger Fa- 
vorable to, 234 
Inflammation of the Eyes, Boric 

Acid for, 231 
Influenza, Treatment of. 230 
Influenza, see also Hay Fever, 231 
Injecting Blood for Treatment of 

Lung Consumption, 228 
Injector Indicator for Locomotive, 

69 
Insecticide, Monosulphide of Potas- 
sium and Sodium as, 213 
Insulation-Piercer, 284 
Insulator, Railway, Winton's, 253 
Insulation, Mica, for Electric Wires, 

284 
Intercommunication, 330 
Integrating Machine, 343 
Internal Flaws in Metal, Apparatus 

for Detecting, 291 
International Exhibition in the Isle 

of Man, 338 
Intonation, Just, Keyed Instrument 

for, 336 
Irish Channel Tunnel, 120 
Iron Casting, Cores for, 151 
Iron, Cast, Transmission of Heat 

Through, 225 
Iron, Diminishing the Excretion of 

Uric Acid, 233 
Iron Furnaces in England, 145 
Iron Gates of the Danube. 34 
Iron, Pig, Electro-Magnet for Lift- 
ing, 292 
Iron Smelting, Electric, 290 
Iron, Soldering, Electric, 288 
Iron Sulphate, in Purification of 

Water, 203 
Irrigation, 36, 37 
Irrigation in Australia, 328 
Irrigation in South Dakota, 37 
Irrigation in the Western States, 37 
Isle of Man, International Exhibi- 
tion in, 338 
Item, Philadelphia, Greatest Print- 
ing Press in Existence, 237 
Ives' Process of Photography in 

Natural Colors, 216 
Ivory, Artificial, 207 

TAOQUET'S Plan for Increasing 

° the Summer Supply of the Nile, 
30 

James' Storage Battery, 276 

Japan, Camphor Refining in, 204 

Japan, Caret guns for, 318 

Jaundice, Condition of the Blood in, 
233 

Johnstone's Compound Locomo- 
tive, 63 

Jeddo Tunnel, 117 

Jet Exhauster, Steam. 5 

Jewelers' Blow Pipe, 346 

Jupiter's Moons, 325 



KALKER Pneumatic Tire Ham- 
mer, 162 
Kansas City, St. Joseph & Council 

Bluffs Railway, Fast Run on, 98 
Kansas Weather, 322 
Kapp on the Economy of Storage 

Batteries, 278 
Kellner's Anti-Acid Steam-Boiler 

Lining, 11 
Kew Observatory, Testing Photo- 
graphic Lenses, 221 
Keyboard Telegraphic Instrument, 

304 
Keying System, Richard's, 1G8 
Keystone Bridge Company's Tower 

at Chicago, 128 
Kinetographic Machines, 219 
Kitasato on Diphtheria Microbes, 

229 
Kites, Electric, 291 
Kittle's Geometrical Carving and 

Corner Block Machine. 185 
Knife, Band, for Cloth-Cutting, 346 
Knight Manufacturing Co., Saw 

Mill Dog, 180 
Krnpp's New Rolling Mill. 140 
Kohler's Diamond Tooth Stone 

Saw, 19 
Kupfelweiser's Process of Open 

Hearth Steel Making, 145 

LABAT'S Docking Slips, 58 
Labourers Train Speed Meas- 
urer, 100 
Lace, Cotton, Manufacture of. 196 
Lacquering Ship Bottoms, 58 
La France, the, 41 
Lake Erie Ship Canal, 111 
Lake Shore Railway, Fast. Run on, 97 
Lakes Huron & Michigan, Ship 

Canal between, 31 
Lamp, Combination of Arc and In- 
candescent, 245 
Lamp, Electric, for Examination of 

the Human Stomach, 242 
Lamp, Railway Electric, 243 
Lamp Shade, Aluminium, 345 
Lamp Support, Flexible, 244 
Langley's Discoveries in Aluminium 

Alloys, 147 
Lantern Projection "by Electric 

Light, 244 
Laparotomy not Necessary in Cases 
of Swallowing Foreign Bodies, 
237 
Large Redwood Plank, 341 
Largest Elevators in the World, 342 
Largest Sailing Vessel Afloat, 41 
Largest Turret Vessel in the World, 

49 
Lathes, 181 

Lauder Compound Locomotive, 62 
Launch Service, Electric, on the 
Spree, 333 



INDEX. 



361 



Laxevaag Ship Building Co., E6 

Lead-Coated Iron and Steel Plates. 
144 

Lead, Diminishing the Excretion of 
Uric Acid, 233 

Lead, Melted, Absorption of, by 
Cotton Seed Oil, 214 

Lead Oxide, for Softening Water, 
209 

Lead, White, Process for, 203 

Le Dansk, 206 

Leather and Raw Hides, Water- 
proofing, 210 

Leeds, Overhead Tramway in, 254 

Lehigh Valley Railway's Steel 
Crank Pins for Locomotives, 71 

Lehigh Valley Railway's Low-Pres- 
sure Cylinders for Locomotives, 
71 

Lehmeyer Current Transformer, 281 

Lemon, Oil of, for Diphtheria, 229 

Lentz' Stayless Locomotive Boiler, 
71 

Lethbridge, Sir Roger, Irish Chan- 
nel Tunnel, 120 

Leonard's Automatic Electric Mo- 
tor, 265 

Level, Polar, 343 

Lewintaner's Treatment of Small- 
pox, 230 

Lick Observatory, 325 

Liebruch on the Cure of Consump- 
tion by Cantharidate of Potash, 
228 

Light, Electric, 242, et seq. 

Lighthouse, Eight Million Candle- 
Power, 334 

Lighthouses and Signals, 333 

Lighting with Primary Batteries, 
275 

Lightning Guard, 282 

Lignite as Fuel for Ital : an Rail- 
ways, 74 

Lindner Starting Gear for Com- 
pound Locomotives, 62 

Limoges Porcelain Factories, Ex- 
periments with Fuel, 338 

Lindenthal's North River Bridge, 
124 

Lining, Anti-Acid Steam Boiler, 11 

Lipmann's Process of Photography, 
215 

Lips, Examination of the, in Speak- 
ing, 219 

Liver, Cirrhosis of. Condition of 
the Blood in, 233 

Liverpool, Naval Exhibition in, 
339 

Liverpool, Route to and from Chi- 
cago, 331 

Lobritz, Method of Demolishing 
Rocks under Water Without 
Explosives, 35 

Locomotion in Water, 219 



Locomotive Brakes, 70 

Locomotive Headlights, Electric, 
on the C. H. & D. R. R., 292 

Locomotive, Electric, 252 

Locomotive Feed Water Heater and 
Purifier for the Long Island 
Railway, 72 

Locomotive Fire Door Opener, 70 

Locomotive for the St. Gothard 
Road, 66 

Locomotive Fuels, 73 

Locomotive Pistons, 73 

Locomotives, 60 

Locomotives in France, Germany, 
Austria, and United States, 7 

Locomotive Sand Box for the Bur- 
lington Railway, 72 

Locomotive Sand Dryer, 70 

Locomotive Smoke Box Protector, 
69 

Locomotive, Thomson-Houston 
Electric, 262 

Lock-Stitch Sewing Machine, 21 

Loefner's Treatment of Diphtheria 
with Mercuric Chloride of 
Cyanide, 229 

Log Cutting Machine, Arbey's, 
179 

London, Electric Exhibition in, 
337 

London-Paris Telephone, 306 

Long Distance Telephony, 305 

Loop Holder, 22 

Loose Pulley Lubricator, 21 

Loose Wheel Electric Truck, 261 

Love Electric Conduit System in 
Chicago, 250 

Love Electric Railway in Chicago, 
254 

Lowe's Book Typewriter, 241 

Low Pressure Cylinders for Loco- 
motives, 71 

Lubricator, 21 

Lubricator, Continuous Shaft, 4 

Lumber Cutting Machines, 173 

Lumber Flume in California, 35 

Lumber Locomotives, 66 

Lungs, Consumption of, Treatment 
by Blood Injections, 228 

Lupton & Sturgeon's plan for Util- 
izing Niagara, 26 

Luzerne's Pneumatic Transmission 
of Power, 199. 

Lyons Bridge, Clavenao's, 125 

MACADAM Roads in Alabama, 
340 
Maccassey, Irish Channel Tunnel, 

120 
Machinery, Showing in Illustrations, 

338 
Machine Shop Practice, 155 
Machine Erection, Device for Facil- 
itating, 170 



362 



INDEX. 



Machinery, Mining, Electric, 270 

Maclvor's White Lead Process, 
203 

Madras Harbor Works, Steam Crane 
for, 17 

Magazine Rifle, Automatic, 319 

Magazine Rifle, Swiss, 319 

Magazine, Small Arms, Tests of, 
319 

Magnet, Electro, for Lifting Pig 
Iron, 292 

Magnet, Electro, in High Surgery, 
300 

Magneto Bell, 287 

Maize Beer, 209 

Majestic, Rapid Passage of, 53 

Malaria, Condition of the Blood in, 
233 

Manchester Ship Canal, 110 

Manchester Steam Boiler Associa- 
tion, Fletcher's Report to, 12 

Manganese Bronze, New, 150 

Manganese, Effect on Iron, 149 

Manganese Steel for Bridge Pins, 
150 

Manhattan Railway Co.'s Solid- 
Frame Locomotive, 71 

Manilla Ropes, Transmission of 
Power by, 197 

Man, Isle of. International Exhibi- 
tion in, 338 

Manure, Effects of Electricity in 
Carrying Through the Soil, 
295 

Marcy's Studies in Locomotion in 
Water, 219 

Marine Boiler, Buckland's, 8 

Marine Engineering, 40 

Marine Engines, Assistant Cylin- 
ders for, 2 

Marine Engine, Tanden, 3 

Marine Gun Platform, 57 

Marinoni's Rotary Press for Multi- 
color Printing, 239 

Markings on Saturn, 325 

Masonry Bridges with Lead Joints, 
127 

Master Car Builders' Tests of Mal- 
leable Iron, 154 

Matcher, 189 

Mat, Floor, for Electric Heating, 300 

Matterhorn Railway, 94 

Mauser Rifle in Russia, 320 

Maxim-Nordenfelt Disappearing 
Turrets, 318 

Maxim's Flying Machine, 323 

Maxim's Projectile, 321 

McCullagh, Irish Channel Tunnel, 
120 

McDougaPs Whaleback Steamers, 
52 

McLain's Straight Railway Track 
Cleaner, 79 

McMillan's Primary Battery, 274 



Meal, Moth, for Poultry Food, 339 

Measuring Electricity, 278 

Meat as Affecting the Excretion of 
Uric Acid, 233 

Mechanical and Metallurgical Proc- 
esses, 138 

Mechanical Engineering, 13 

Mechanical Retorts Co. Continuous 
Retorts, 200 

Mechanical Stoker for Locomotives, 
71 

Medical Prevention of Suicides and 
Murders, Haig on, 232 

Medicine, 226 

Mercurial Weighing Machine, 223 

Mercuric Chloride in Diphtheria,229 

Mercuric Cyanide in Diphtheria, 229 

Mercury, Transit of, 325 

Merry weather's Hydraulic Sewer 
Fl usher, 39 

Messenez, Desulphurizing Pig Iron, 
144 

Melting Points, Instruments for De- 
termining, 224 

Metal, Flaws in, Apparatus for De 
tecting, 291 

Metalline Alloy, 151 

Metallurgy, Processes in, 146 

Metallurgy and Foundry Practice, 
138 

Metals, Connecting to Glass or Por- 
celain, 224 

Meteorology, 321 

Meter, Electric, Acme Works, 279 

Meter, Electric, Freres 1 Recording, 
278 

Meter, Teague's Electricity, 279 

Meter, Watt, Swinburn's, 280 

Metric System, Proposed, 341 

Metropolitan Railway cf Paris, 
Tunnel for, 117 

Mica Insulations for Wires, 284 

Michigan Central Railway, Fast 
Run on, 97 

Michigan Southern Railway, Fast 
Run on, 97 

Microbe of Rheumatism, Bordas on, 
234 

Micrometer, 164 

Microscopes, Improvements in, 207 

Military, 307 

Military Dove-Cotes, 316 

Milk as Affecting the Excretion of 
Uric Acid, 233 

Milling Machines, Recent, 156 

Mill Sprinkling System. 345 

Mineral Works in Southern Oregon, 
137 

Mining and Quarrying, 132 

Mining Drill, Electric, 271 

Mining Machinery, Electric, 270 

Mining Motor, Electric, 266 

Miscellaneous, 333 

Missouri River, 34 



INDEX. 



363 



Mogul Locomotives, 72 

Molder and Shaper, 188 

Molding Machine, Egan & Co. '8 12- 
inch, 174 

Molding Machine, nine-inch, four- 
sided, 175 

Molding Sand, Improvement in, 151 

Monaco, Prince of, Vessel for Study 
of Oceanography, 339 

Mond & Quincke's Discovery of a 
Nickel-Carbon Oxide, 213 

Mond & Quincke's Experiments in 
Volatilizing Iron, 214 

Monolithic Construction at Stan- 
ford University, 132 

Monosulphite of Potassium and 
Sodium as an Insecticide, 213 

Mont Blanc Observatory, 325 

Moons of Jupiter, 325 

Morrison's Electric Carriage, 296 

Morrison, Tall Tower for Chicago, 
128 

Mortisers and Tenoners, 178 

Moth Meal for Poultry Food, 339 

Motor, Railwav, Dahl's Slow Speed 
Electric, 257 

Motor, Eickenmeyer'a Electric 
Street Railway, 256 

Motor. Electric, at Rush St. Bridge, 
Chicago, 267 

Motor, Electric Mining, 266 

Motor, Railway, Gearless Electric, 
259 

Motor, Heat, Electric, 297 

Motor, Henry's Electric Street 
Railway, 255 

Motors, Electric, 265 

Motors, Electric, Applications of, 
267 

Motors, Electric Railway, 255 

Motor, Leonard's Automatic Elec- 
tric. 265 

Motor Truck, Equalizing Electric, 
261 

Motor Truck, Goss', 262 

Motor, Two-Pole Electric Railway, 
25S 

Moving a Large Elm Tree, 341 

Mouth Protector for Furnace. 11 

Multiple Dispatch Railway, 80 

Murders, Medical Prevention of, 
232 

Musical Notation, New System, 336 

Musical Pitch, Standard Adopted, 
336 

NAPHTHOL for Typhoid Fever, 
229 
Natural Gas, Ice Making by Expan- 
sion of, 205 
Natural Gas in Cleveland, England, 

153 
Natural Gas in Kentucky, 137 
Naval Exhibition in Liverpool, 337 



Neovius on Thyme as a Specific for 

Whooping Cough, 231 
Neutral Violet Dye, 215 
New Brunswick and Prince Edward 

Island Tunnel, 119, 
Newcomb on Rain Making, 321 
New Mexico, Mineral Oil in, 137 
Newport News Ship Building and 
Dock Co., Vertical Cylinder- 
Boring Machine for, 161 
New York and Long Island City 

Tunnel, 119 
New York Central Railway, Fast 

Run on, 97, 98 
New York City Electric Power Sta- 
tion, 249 
New York Harbor, Defenses of, 308 
New York and Hoboken Bridge, 

121 
Niagara Power at Chicago, 199 
Niagara River Tunnel, 120 
Nickel-Aluminium Alloy, 151 
Nickel, Effect on Iron, 149 
Nickel, Heat Motor, 297 
Nickel-Steel Armor Plates, 143 
Norris' Circulating Filter, 208 
Northern Railway of France, Fast 

Run on, 100 
North German Canal. 107 
North German Lloyd's Anticorro- 

sive for Ship Bottoms, 58 
North Pacific. Soundings in, 304 
North Pole, Expedition to by Bal- 
loon 324 
Norton Brothers, Tin Plate Factory, 

153 
Notation, Musical, New System, 336 
Nova Scotia Route to Europe, 331 
Number of Steam Engines in the 

World. 7 
Nut lock Washer, 345 

(OBSERVATORY, Lick, 325 
^ Observatory, Mont Blanc, 325 
Oceanography, Vessel for Study of, 

339 
Ocean Post Offices, 341 
Oder and Spree Canal, Traction on, 

113 
Oerlikon Works, Electric Transmis- 
sion of Power at, 271 
Offenbach, Pneumatic Transmission 

of Power in, 199 
Office, Post, Ocean, 341 
Oil as Fuel on Peruvian Railways, 

74 
Oil Distributor, 59 
Oil Fuel, 138 

Oils, Various, for Diphtheria, 229 
Oil, Olive, in California, 329 
Oldfield's Improvements in Color 

Printing, 238 
Old Colony Railway Two-cylinder 

Compound Locomotive, 62 



364 



INDEX. 



Olive Oil in California, 329 
One Hundred Ton Guns. 134 
Ontario-Huron Ship Railway. 332 
Opals in Washington State, 137 
Open Hearth Steel Making. 145 
Optical Instruments, Glass for, 207 
Ordnance and Firearms, 317 
Ore-hauling, Traction Engines for, 

7 
Ore-sorting Shovel, Brunton's, 135 
Ores, Refractory, Reduction of, 202 
Otto Twin Cylind< r Gas and Petro- 
leum Engine, 14 
Overhead Tramway in I>eds, 254 
Oxalic Acid in Blue Printing, 221 
Oxide of Lead for Softening Water, 

209 
Oxygen, Liquid, Boiling Point of, 

225 
Oyonnax Electric Power Installa- 
tion, 272 
Ozone, Commercial Manufacture of, 

by the Siemens Process, 202 
Ozone Making by Electricity, 297 

PACIFIC, North, Soundings in, 
304 

Packing Material, Peat as a, 213 

Paint, Cottonseed Oil, 214 

Pambutano as a Substitute for Qui- 
nine, 234 

Palladium for Plating Watch Move- 
ments, 154 

Palmer on the Beneficial Effect of 
Hydrastis in Phthisis, 227 

Panama Canal, 113 

Paper, Curcuma Test, for Acids, 214 

Paper Shoestrings, 344 

Parn chute, Carson's, 324 

Paraffin Oil in Diphtheria, 229 

Parcel Exchange, 252 

Paris and London Telephone, 306 

Paris, Transmission of Power by 
Compressed Air in, 198 

Parker's Process of Making Phos- 
phorus by Electricity, 299 

ParsMis & Co., Steam Turbine, 248 

Patent System, American, Second 
Century of, 341 

Pauthonnier's Method of Repairing 
Incandescent Electric Lamps, 
243 

P. C. C. & St. L. Railway, Fast Run 
on, 99 

Pearsall's Plan for Utilizing Niag- 
ara, 26 

Peat as a Packing Material, 213 

Pedestal Shaper and Variety Mold- 
er, 188 

Pelton Water Wheel Co.'s Plan for 
Utilizing Niagara, 29 

Pentaglucoses, 215 

Penna. R. R., Compound Locomo- 
tive, 62 



Penn. R.R., Double-Deck Propeller 

Ferryboat, Cincinnati, 47 
Penna. R. R., Fast Runs on, 97, 101 
Penna. R. R., Passenger Depot at 

Jersey City, 106 
Periar River, 32 
Perl's Signal System, 104 
Pernambuco-Senegal, Submarine 

Cable, 304 
Perry's Electric Meter, 278 
Perry's Steam Engine Indicator, 5 
Pesth-Vienna Electric Railway, 254 
Phenacetine for Hay Fever, 231 
Phenetol for Diphtheria, 229 
Phila. & Reading Railway, Fast 

Run on, 99 
Philadelphia Item, Greatest Print- 
ing Press in Existence, 237 
Philadelphia, Storage Battery Cars 

in, 278 
Phylloxera, Remedy for, 329, 330 
Phonophore, 301 

Phosphate of Sodium, Increasing 
the Excretion of Uric Acid, 233 
Phosphorus, Effect on Iron, 149 
Phosphorus, Making by Electricity, 

299 
Photographic Cameras, Detective, 

220 
Photographic Timer, Electric, 287 
Photographs, Developing Without a 

Dark Room, 220 
Photography, 216 

Photography in Aniline Colors, 218 
Photography in Natural Colors, 215, 

216 
Photometer, Thompson's, 223 
Phthisis, Hydrastis in, 227 
Piano-Tuning Pin, 21 
Piatkowski's Continuous Centrifu- 
gal Separator, 344 
Picking Cotton, Machine for, 328 
Pig Iron, Electro-Magnet for Lift- 
ing, 292 
Pig Iron Storage Yards, 153 
Pile Drivers, Electrically-Driven, 

369 
Pipe, Blow, for Jewelers, 346 
Pipes, Copper, Electrolytic, 288 
Pitch, Musical, Standard Adopted, 

336 
Pitkin Compound Locomotive, 62 
Pittsburgh Locomotive Works' 

Compound Locomotive, 62 
Planer and Matcher, Fast Feed, 189 
Planers and Surfacers, 186 
Planing and Shaping Machines 155, 

156 
Plank, Redwood, Large, 341 
Plant Life, Effect of Electricity on, 

294 
Platinide Alloy for Chemical Uten- 
sils, 151 
Plumb Island Fortifications, 312 



INDEX. 



365 



Pneumatic Hoisting Apparatus, 16 

Pneumatic Railway Signal, 104 

Pneumatic Transmission of Power, 
199 

Pneumonia, Condition of the Blood 
in, 234 

Pochet's Method of Ventilating 
Tunnels, 116 

Polarizer, 221 

Polar Level, 343 

Pole, North, Expedition to, 324 

Polymeter, 225 

Popp & Riedler's Plan for Utilizing 
Niagara, 25 

Population of the United States, 340 

Porcelain, Connecting to Metal, 224 

Porcelain Factories, Experiments 
with Fuel in, 338 

Portable Rail Saw, 163 

Portable Railway for Africa, 96 

Portelectric System, 296 

Portland Cement Base for Electro- 
types, 240 

Port Said, Rock Shattering at, 35 

Portugal, Oil of, for Diphtheria, 229 

Position and Range Finder, Fiske's, 
313 

Positive Blast Blower for Coal 
Slack, 136 

Positive Nut-Lock Washer, 345 

Post Office, Ocean, 341 

Potash, Cantharidate of, in Con- 
sumption, 228 

Potash, Increasing the Excretion of 
Uric Acid, 233 

Potassium, Monosulphide of as an 
Insecticide, 213 

Potatoes, Effect of Electricity on 
Growth of, 295 

Potatoes for Removing Foreign 
Bodies from the System, 237 

Potomac Flats, Improvement in, 
340 

Poultry Food, Moth Meal for, 339 

Powder, Smokeless, 213 

Powder, Smokeless, Swedish, 315 

Powder, Smokeless, for Field Ar- 
tillery, 320 

Power, Electric Transmission of at 
Oerlikon Works, 271 

Power Installation, Electric, at 
Oyonnax, at 272 

Power Installation, Electric, at 
Charmines, 273 

Power Stations, Electric, 249 

Power, Transmission of, 197 

Power-Transmission, Brush's Dy- 
namo for, 247 

Pratt & Whitney Co., Milling Ma- 
chine, 157 

Preserving Wine by Electricity, 290 

Press, Drill, Electrically-Driven, 

269 
Pressed Steel, Hand-Car Wheel, 85 



Pressed Steel Freight-Car Truck, 85 

Press, Printing, Greatest in Exist- 
ence, 237 

Press, Rotary, for Multicolor Print- 
ing, Marinoni's, 239 

Pressure Gauge at Eiffel Tower, 335 

Pressure Indicator, Electric, 280 

Prevention of Suicides and Mur- 
ders, Medical, 232 

Primary Batteries, 274 

Primary Batteries for Lighting on 
the N. Y. & N. E. Railway, 275 

Printing, Color, Oldfield's Improve- 
ment in, 238 

Printing and Typewriting, 237 

Printing Press, Greatest in Exist- 
ence, 237 

Process of Bronze Casting, 151 

Products, Artificial, 206 

Projectile, Maxim's, 321 

Projection, Lantern, Electric Lamp 
for, 244 

Projecting Lamp, Electric, 245 

Prompt's Plan for Increasing the 
Summer Supply of the Nile, 30 

Proposed Canals, 111 

Proposed Railways, 87 

Protector for Electric Apparatus, 
282 

Pruning, Vine, 327 

Pumps, Electric, 271 

Purification of Water, 208 

Purification of Water by Electricity, 
289 

Purification of Water bv Sulphate of 
Iron, 203 

Pyrometer, Electric, 287 

QUARRYING Rock, New Method 
of, 133 
Quartering Shovel, Brunton's, 135 
Quincke on Nickel-Carbon Oxide, 

213 
Quincke on Volatizing Iron, 214 
Quinine, Artificial, 215 
Quinine, Substitute for, 234 

"DACK Railway Gearing, 79 

-"' Rack Railway in Japan, 96 

Radical Steam Jet Exhauster, 5 

Rahtjen's Anti-Corrosive for Ship 
Bottoms, 58 

Rail Joints, 76 

Rair Saw, 163 

Railway Bridge at Rush St., Chi- 
cago, 267 

Railway Car Buffers, 87 

Railway Cars, 83 

Railway Cars, Electric, Safety Fen- 
der for, 254 

Railway Car Ventilation, 83 

Railway Defense for Coast Lines, 
314 

Railway Dynamo-Generator, 261 



36G 



INDEX. 



Railways, Electric, at the World's 

Fair of 1898, 253 
Railway, Electric, Gordon's, 251 
Railways, Electric, in Honolulu, 

254 
Railway, Electric, on Fnllerton 

Avenue, Chicago, 254 
Railway Gearing, 79 
Railway, Hague - Scheveningen , 

Storage Batteries on, 277 
Railway Items, 101 
Railway Lamp, Electric, 243 
Railway Line and insulator, 253 
Railway Management in Ireland. 106 
Railway Motor. Dahl's Slow Speed 

Electric, 257 
Railway Motor, Eickenmeyer's 

Electric, 256 
Railway Motor, Henry's Electric, 

255 
Railway Motor, Two-Pole, 258 
Railway Motors, Electric, 255 
Railway Permanent Way, 74 
Railway Plow and Scraper, 79 
Railway Rolling Stock, 81 
Railway Runs, Fast, 97 
Railways, Electric, 250 
Railways, Electric, in Berlin, 254 
Railways, Electric, Secondary Bat- 
teries for, 251 
Railway, Ship, Chignecto, 332 
Railway Spikes, 76 
Railway to Kilimandjaro, 90 
Railway Tracks, 75 
Railway Train Vestibule, 82 
Railway, Winton's, 253 
Rain Making, Newcomb & Houston 

on, 321 
Raising Lakes Huron and Michigan, 

31 
Range-Finder, Fiske's, 313 
Range-Finder, Weld on' s, 313 
Ransomes & Napier's Titan Steam 

Crane, 17 
Rapid Building in Chicago, 131 
Rapid Fire Cannon for "Russia, 318 
Rapid Ocean Passages, 53 
Rapid Transit Railway, 91 
Ravelli's Helicoid Windlass, 18 
Raw Hides, Water Proofing, 210 
Reading Apparatus, 344 
Recent Dynamos, 246 
Reduction, Electrolytic, of Alumin- 
ium, 248 
Reduction of Refractory Ores, 

Shedlock's Process for, 202 
Redwood Plank, Large, 341 
Reed's Channel Tubular Railway, 

121 
Refining Camphor in Japan, 204 
Refractory Ores, Reduction of, 202 
Refrigerating Co., 205 
Regulator. Electric Current, Tom- 
linson's, 281 



Reindeer in Alaska, 330 
Remedy for Phylloxera, 330 
Remijia Pedunculata in the Manu- 
facture of Artificial Quinine, 215 
Renard's Dirigible Air Ship, 324 

Reno Tunnel for Broadway, N. Y., 

118 
Resawing Machine, 179 
Report on Boiler Explosions, 12 

Retina, Removal of Steel from, 236 

Retorts, Continuous Action, 200 

Reversing Lever for Locomotives, 
69 

Rheumatism ,Bordas on the Microbe 
of, 234 

Rhode Island Compound Locomo- 
tive, 62 

Ribbed Boiler Tubes, 10 

Richards' Process of Casting Steel 
Car Wheels, 151 

Richards' Side Planer and Shaper, 
155 

Rieter & Co.'s Plan for r/tilizing 
Niagara, 28 

Rifle, Automatic Magazine, 319 

Rifle, Magazine, Swiss, 319 

Rifle, Mauser, in Russia, 320 

Rifles, Austrian, 320 

Rim and Felloe Rounding Machine, 
189 

Rim Packing and Cutting Off Ma- 
chine, 190. 

Rim Strip Equalizing Machine, 189 

Rip Sawing Machine, 179 

River and Harbor Improvements, 33 

River Bed Profiler, 39 

Rixa's Treatment of Hay Fever, 230 

Roads. Macadam, in Alabama, 340 

Road Rollers, Compound Steam. 3 

Rock Shattering at Edinburgh and 
Port Said, 35 

Rogers' 26-inch Double Surfacer,186 

Rogers' Pedestal Shaper and Va- 
riety Molder, 188 

Rogers' Locomotive Works, Com- 
pound Locomotive, 62 

Rolling-Mills, 140 

Rolling Steel Tubes, 19 

Roman Bridge, 127 ^ 

Rope Driving, 197 

Roseine Alloy for Jewelers' Work, 
151 

Rotary Press for Multicolor Print- 
ing, Marinoni's, 239 

Route to India, 330 

Routing Machine, 185 

Rubies, Artificial, 206 

Rule, Slide, for Electric Wiring, 345 

Rush Street, Chicago, Railway 
Bridge at, 267 

Russia, Drought in, 327 

Russia, Mauser Rifle in, 320 

Russian Compound Locomotive, 66 

Russian Mercury from Saigewa. 136 



INDEX. 



367 



Russian Rapid-Fire Cannons, 318 
Rusting of Bessemer Steel, 154 
Tiusting of Iron, 154 

Q ADDLE, Spring, 347 

^ Safety Device for Electric Wires, 

283 
Safety Fender for Electric Railway 

Cars, 254 
Safety Locomotive Ash Pan, 69 
Sahara Railway, 90 
Salicylate of Bismuth for Typhoid 

Fever, 230 
Salicylate of Sodium for Removing 

Uric Acid, 232 
Salicylates, Increasing the Excre- 

.tion of Uric Acid, 233 
Salmon, Proposed Photographic 

Scalp, 222 
Salol for Typhoid Fever, 229 
Salsify for Silk Worms, 330 
Sand Belt Machine, 177 
Sand Blast for Cleauing Buildings, 

338 
Sand Box for Locomotive, 72 
Sand Dryer, 70 
Sandpapering Machine, Triple 

Drum, 176 
Sandy Hook Fortifications, 312 
Sapori Process of Preparing Lignite, 

74 
Sariscite in Nevada, 135 
Saturn, Markings on, 325 
Sault Ste. Marie Canal, 111 
Sault Ste. Marie, Water Works of, 

29 
Sautter, Harle & Co.'s Electrically 

Driven Drills, 268 
Sawing Machine, Doable Rip and 

Cross Cutting, 179 
Sawing Machinery and Appliances, 

179 
Saw-Mill Dog, 180 
Sciollaon the Density of Human 

Blood during Disease, 233 
Sciseophone, 143, 291 
Scouring Water Ways, 34 
Screw Engine, Twin, 3 
Screw Shaper, Development of, 

155 
Schenectady Locomotive Works' 

Compound Locomotive, 62 
Schjott Oil Distributor, 59 
Schmidt & Silsbee's Multiple Dis- 
patch Railway, 80 
Sclerometer, 335 
Screw Co., American, in England, 

340 
Screw Ferryboat on the Pacific 

Coast, 49 
Sea- Water Battery for Boat Pro- 
pulsion, 375 
Secondary Batteries for Electric 

Railways, 251 



Sectional Boiler, Marine,Babcock & 
Wilcox, 8 

Sectional Stuffing Box Bushing, 19 

Second Century of American Patent 
System, 341 

Seesaw Tower, Oberlin Smith's, 130 

Seine Tunnel, 120 

Sellers' Vertical Cylinder Boring 
Machine, 161 

Seller's Water Tube Boiler, 9 

Senegal, Pernambuco, Submarine 
Cable, 304 

Separator, Continuous Centrifugal, 
344 

Serpollet Steam Carriage, 6 

Sessions' and Pullman's Electric 
Street Car, 83 

Set Squares, Transparent, 345 

Seventh Avenue Bridge, 123 

Sewing Machines, 21 

Shand, Mason & Co.'s Steam Fire 
Engine, 6 

Shaft Lubricator, Continuous, 4 

Shaper and M older, 188 

Shaping and Planing Machines, 155 

Shattering Subaqueous Rocks, 35 

Shedlock's Process for Reducing 
Refractory Ores, 202 

Shell Fuse. Berdan's, 314 

Ship Bottoms, Lacquering, 58 

Ship Building, 40 

Ship Building Plates, 55 

Ship Railway, Chignecto,332 

Ship Railways, Huron-Ontario, 332 

Shoestrings, Paper, 344 

Short Co.'s Gearless Electric Rail- 
way Motor, 259 

Short Co.'s Railway Dynamo Gen- 
erator, 261 

Short Co.'s Single Reduction 
Watertight Gear Motor, 260 

Showing Machinery in Illustrations, 
338 

Siamese Railways, 95 

Siberia Open to Commerce, 137 

Sidewalk, Traveling, at the Colum- 
bian Fair, 253 

Siemens' Compound- Wound Dyna- 
mo with Drum Armature, 246 

Siemens-Halske Alternating Cur- 
rents, 296 

Siemens' Process for th e Commer- 
cial Manufacture of Ozone, 202 

Signal Bureau, Weather, 321 

Signal Control, 105 

Signals, Fog, 334 

Signals for Locomotive Cabs, 69 

Signals, 333 

Signal System, 104 

Silent Electric Cab Call, 345 

Silica at Frieden.«ville, Pa., 134 

Silicon, Effect on Iron, 149 

Silkworms Fed on Dandelion and 
Salsify, 330 



368 



IXDEX. 



Silvering Iron by Electricity, 290 

Simploo Tunnel, 114 

Single Reduction Watertight Gear 
Motor, 260 

Siphon Stopper, Benwith's, 346 

Skein Setting and Fixing Machine, 
193 

Skin Grafting, 236 

Slide Rule for Electric Wiring, 345 

Slip at Bordeaux, 59 

Slip at Fon Tchion, 59 

Slip at Rouen, 59 

Slow-burning Construction, Wood- 
bury on, 132 

Slow Speed, Eiectric Railway Mo- 
tor, 255 

Small Arms, Magazine, Tests of, 
819 

Smallpox, Lewintaner's Treatment 
of, 230 

Smelting, Iron, by Electricity, 290 

Smith, Chas. W., Paper on Steel as 
Applied to Armor Plates, 141 

Smith's Keyboard Telegraphic In- 
struments, 304 

Smoke Annihilator, 12 

Smokebox Protector. 69 

Smoke-Consuming Locomotives,65, 
71 

Smokeless Powder, Dupont & Co., 
213 

Smokeless Powder for Field Artil- 
lery, 320 

Smokeless Powder, Swedish, 315 

Snow Breastworks, 314 

Socket for Incandescent Lamps, 243 

Soda, Caustic, Manufacture by 
Electricity, 202 

Soda, Increasing the Excretion of 
Uric Acid, 233 

Sodium, Menosulphide of, as an In- 
secticide, 213 

Sodium Salicylate for Removing 
Uric Acid, 232 

Softening Water for Industrial Pur- 
poses by Hydrated Oxide of 
Lead, 209 

Soldering Iron, Electric, 288 

Solid Frame Locomotive. 71 

Somoff's Small Electric Lamps for 
Inspection of the Human 
Stomach or Bladder, 242 

Sorghum Sugar, 212 

Soldering Aluminium, 147 
Solenoid Coal-Cutting Machine, 271 
Soundings in the North Pacific, 304 
South American Intercontinental 

Railway, 91 
South African Petroleum. 137 
South Bethlehem Gun Founding, 

138 
South Dakota. Irrigation in, 37 
Southern Pacific Railway Company, 
70 



Southern Pacific Railway, Fast Run 

on, 97 
Spanish Furnace for Boilers, 9 
Speaking, Examination of the Lips 

in, 210 
Spence on Aluminium in Foundry 

Practice, 151 
Spike, Oil of, for Diphtheria, 229 
Spoke-Driving Machine, 192 
Spoke and Handle Lathe, 183 
Spoke Lathe, 181 
Spoke Turning and Squaring Lathe, 

183 
Spots on Venus, 325 
Spouting Wells in Washington, 

37 
Spree, Electric Launch Service on, 

333 
Springer's Process for Making Alco- 
hol, 211 
Spring Washer, 345 
Spring Saddle, 347 
Sprinkling System for Millso, 345 
Square Chisel Car Mortiser and 

Tenoner, 178 
Stacks of the Steamer Scott, 51 
Stamp, Electric Time, 285 
Standard Musical Pitch, 336 
Stanford University, 340 
Stanley Marine Boiler, 8 
Stanley Pool, Boat for, 47 
Starting Gear for Compound Loco- 
motives, 62 
Static Electric Motor, 269 
Stations, Electric Power, 249 
Statue Casting, 151 
Stay Bolts, 141 

Stayless Locomotive Boiler, 70 
St. Catharine's Point Lighthouse, 

244 
St. Clair River, 31 
St. Clair River Tunnel, 118 
St. Clair Tunnel Locomotive, 68 
St. Louis Railway Bridge, 123 
Steamboat for Fishing Trade, 48 
Steam Boilers, 8 
Steam Boiler Users' Association, 

Manchester ; Fletcher's Report, 

12 
Steam Crane for Harbor Works, 17 
Steam Cruiser 25 de Mayo, 52 
Steam Engineering, 1 
Steam Engines, 2 
Steam Engines on the City of Pans, 

2 
Steam Engines in the World, 7 
Steamer for the Congo, 45 
Steamer Goodivill, 45 
Steamer Scott of the Cape Mail, 51 
Steam Hammer, Most Powerful in 

the World, 139 
Steam Hydraulic Crane, 17 
Steam Jet Exhauster, 5 
Steam Joints for Trains, 102 



INDEX. 



369 



Steam Launch Norwood, 49 
Steam Launch Vamoose, 49 
Steam Pipes for the Ferranti Dyna- 
mos, 11 
Steam Pump driven by a Dynamo 

through a Water Motor, 268 
Steamship R nite, Uniform, 331 
Steamship Teutonic, 56 
Steam Traction Wagon for Hauling, 

7 
Steam Turbine, Parsons', 248 
Steam Velocity through Orifices, 5 
Stechner's River Bed Profiler, 39 
Steel Barge Company's Whaleback 

Steamers, 52 
Steel Chain, Weldless, 19 
Steel Chimney for the Chicago Fair, 

131 
Steel Crank Pins for Locomotives. 71 
Steel Foundations for Tall Build- 
ings, 131 
Steel Gun, First Ever Made in the 

U. S., 138 
Steel Pipes, 154 

Steel, Removal from the Retina, 236 
Steel Sleepers on Indian Railways, 

76 
Steel Ties, 77 
Steel Ties on the Chicago & Western 

Indiana Railway, 77 
Steel Tubes, Rolling, 19 
Steel Vessel on Lake Michigan, 50 
Steering Gear of the Steamship 

Teutonic, 56 
Stefanite Process of Introducing 

Aluminium into Iron, 148 
Stethoscope, Freres', 279 
Stomach, Human, Electric Lamps 

for the Examination of, 242 
Stop Motion for Carding Engines, 

196 
Stopper, Siphon, 346 
Storage Batteries, 276 
Storage Batteries, Economy of, 278 
Storage Batteries on the Hague- 

Scheveninp;en Railway, 277 
Storage Batteries, Waddell-Entz,' 

276 
Storage Battery Cars in Philadel- 
phia, 278 
Storage Battery, James 1 , 276 
Storing Heat for Street Railways, 82 
Street Railway Motor, Eicken- 

meyer's Electric, 256 
Street Railway Motor, Henry's 

Electric, 255 
Street Railway Plow and Scraper, 

79 
Strohbach's Wire Loop Holder, 22 
Stuffing Box Bashing, Sectional, 19 
Submarine Cable from Pernambuco 

to Senegal, 304 
Submarine Cables, Great Circle 

Route for, 304 



Substitute for Butter, 206 

Substitute for Celluloid, 207 

Substitute for Glass, Eckstein's, 207 

Substitute for Quinine, 234 

Suez Canal, Electric Light on, 244 

Suez Canal Railway, 96 

Sugar in the Human Blood, Tunker 

on, 233 
Sugar Manufacture, 212 
Sugars, New Class of, 215 
Sugar, Sorghum, 212 
Sugar Tablets, 212 
Sugar, Washing, with Alcohol, 212 
Sulphur, Effect on Iron, 149 
Summer Supply of the Nile, 29 
Surface Cattle Car for Railways, 81 
Supplying Cold by Street Mains in 

Denver, 205 
Support for Electric Lamps, 244 
Snrfacers, 186 
Surgery, 235 

S us mis' Ether Engine, 15 
Sutton's System of Telephotog- 
raphy, 218 
Swallowing Foreign Bodies, Lapa- 
rotomy not Necessary in Case 
of, 237 
Swedish Smokeless Powder, 315 
Sweeper, Track, Electric, 255 
Sweet Orange Peel, Oil of, for 

Diphtheria, 229 
S win burn's Watt-Meter, 280 
Swing-jib Countersink Drilling Ma- 
chine, Jones & Bouton's, 157 
Swiss Magazine Rifle, 319 
Swiveling Railway Car Trucks in 

Sweden, 87 
Sydney-Turner's Treatment of 
Diphtheria with Paraffin oil, 229 
Symes' Camphor Refining Press, 

204 
Szczeniowski & Piatkowski's Con- 
tinuous Centrifugal Separator, 
344 

TAMING Bees by Electric Wands, 

- 1 - 300 

Tanaka's Keyed Instrument for 

Just Intonation, 336 
Tandem Compound Locomotive, 65 
Tandem Marine Engine, Clarke's, 3 
Tannin, Removal from Tea, 214 
Tanning, 210 
Tanning Materials, r 210 
Tansa Reservoir, 33 
Taylor, N. & G. Co., Tin Plate 

Works, 153 
Tea, Removal of Tannin from, 214 
Teague, Electricity Meter, 279 
Technology, Industrial, 200 
Teeth, Artificial, Method of Fasten- 
ing, 339 
Tekoa, The, Rapid Passage, 54 
Telegraph Call, Answer-Back, 302 



370 



INDEX. 



Telegraphic Feats on Long Circuits, 
303 

Telegraphic Instruments, I uplex, 
304 

Telegraphic Instruments with Key- 
board, 304 

Telegraphy, 300 

Telephany, 219 

Telephone, 305 

Telephone, Audible, 305 

Telephone, Austrian, 307 

Telephone, Costa Rica, 307 

Telephone, London-Paris, 306 

Telephony, Long Distance, 305 

Telephotography, Sutton's System 
of, 218 

Telethermometer, Electric, 286 

Temescal Tm, 137 

Tenon ers and Mortisers, 178 

Ten-wheel Locomotives, 73 

Terminal City Co., 331 

Terne Plate in the U. S., 153 

Teala on High Tension t Alternate 
Currents, 242 

Test Indicator, 170 

Test Paper, Curcuma, r for Acids, 214 

Tessier on Influenza, 231 

Tests of Magazine Small Arms, 310 

Tests of Timber, 329 

Teutonic, Rapid Passage of, 53 

Textile Machinery, 194 

Thames Tunnel, 115 

Thermometric Scale, Salmon's 
Proposed, 222 

Thirty-Miles an-Hour Boat, 45 

Thompson's Operation for Removal 
of Steel from the Retina, 236 

Thompson's Photometer, 223 

Thomson, Elihu, on the Physio- 
logical Effect of Alternating 
Currents of High Frequency, 
297 

Thomson-Houston Dynamo Driv- 
ing Steam Pump Through 
Water Motor, 268 

Thomson-Houston Electric Mining 
Drill, 271 

Thomson-Houston Co.'s Electro- 
Magnet for Lifting Pig Iron, 
292 

Thomson-Houston Freight Loco- 
motive, 262 

Thomson-Houston Overhead Tram- 
way in Leeds, 254 

Thomson-Houston Two-Pole Rail- 
way Motor, 258 

Thomson's Vacuum Tubes without 
Electrodes, 309 

Thoreau on Vine-Pruning, 327 

Thorneycroft's Steamer for the 
Congo, 45 

Thorneycroft's Torpedo Boats, 43 

Thorneycroft's Twin Screw Tor- 
pedo Boat, 45 



Threading Device for underground 
Conduits, 253 

Three Americas Railway, 95 

Three-Cylinder Compound Loco- 
motive, 65 

Thury's Cyclostat, 222 

Thwaites' Method of Planishing 
Pipes and Plates, 143 

Thyme, Neovius on, as a Specific 
for Whooping Cough, 231 

Thymol for Diphtheria, 2^9 

Tire Rolling for Ingots, Higgins' 
Process, 143 

Timber Tests, 329 

Timer, Photographic, Electric, 287 

Time Stamp, Electric, 285 

Tinning, Electrical, 290 

Tin Plate Articles in the U. S., 153 

Titan Steam Crane, 17 

Tollens' New Class of Sugars, 215 

Toluol, for Diphtheria, 229 

Tomatoes, Effect of Electricity on 
Growth of , 295 

Tomlinson Automatic Electric Cur- 
rent Regulator, 281 

Tonquin Coal Seams, 136 

Tool-Grinding Machines, 158 

Torpedo Boats, 43, 45 

tk Torrent" Filters, 208 

Tower, Eiffel, Pressure Gauge at, 
335 

Track Cleaner, Electric, 255 

Track Sweeper, Electric, 255 

Traction Wagon for Ore Hauling, 7 

Train Pipe Valve, 86 

Trafalgar's Rapid Passage, 54 

Train Speed Measurer, 100 

Train Staff System on the N. Y., N. 
H. & H. R. R., 103 

Train, Vestibule, 82 

Tramway. See Railways also. 

Tramway, Overhead, in Leeds, 254 

Trans-Andine Railway, 89 

Transformer, Current, Lehmeyer's, 
281 

Transit of Mercury, 325 

Transmission of Heat Through 
Cast-iron Plates, 225 

Transmission of Power, 197 

Transmission of Power atOerlikon 
Works, 271 

Transmission of Power, Brush's 
Dynamo for, 247 

Transmission of Power by Manilla 
Ropes, 197 

Trans-Siberian Railway, 88 

Transparent Set-Squares of Cellu- 
loid, 345 

Transvaal Petroleum, 137 

Traveling Sidewalk at the Colum- 
bian Fair, 253 

Tree Feller, Arbey's, 179 

Tricycle Petroleum Motor, 15 

Trisecting an Angle, 339 



INDEX. 



371 



Trouve's Boat Propelled by a Sea- 
Water Battery, 275 
Truck, Equalizing Electric Motor, 

262 
Truck, Loose Wheel, Electric, 231 
Truck, Motor, Goss', 262 
Trust, Harvesting Machine, 341 
Tube, Almond's Flexib e, 343 
Tuberculosis, Condition of the 

Blood in, 233 
Tuberculosis, Treatment by Blood 

Injections, 228 
Tubular Marine Boiler, Yarrow's, 9 
Tugboat Edwin Hartley, 3 
Tungsten, Effect on Iron, 149 
Tuuker on the Amount of Sugar in 

the Human Blood, 233 
Tunnel Locomotive, 68 
Tunnel Through the Alps, 114 
Tunnels, 114 

Turbine, Steam, Parsons', 248 
Turkey that hM been Frozen Ten 

Years, Dinner on , 204 
Turrets, Disappearing, 318 
Turret- ship Hood, 49 
Turner's Sclerometer, 335 
Turning the Course of the Periar 

River, 32 
Tuyere Iron, 142 
Twenty-six Inch Double Surfacer of 

Rogers & Co., 186 
Twin Cylinder Gas and Petroleum 

Engine, 14 
Twin Screw Engine, 3 
Twin Screw Steel Cattle Steamer 

Xomadic, 48 
Twin Screw Steel Steamboat for 

Fishing Trade, 48 
Twist Drill Grinder, Edmeston's, 

159 
Two-Cylinder Compound Locomo- 
tive, 62 
Two-Pole Railway Motor, 258 
Typesetting Machines, 239 
Types of Vessels, 41 
Typewriting, 237 
Typhoid Fever, Condition of the 

Blood in, 234 
Typhoid Fever, Dujardin-Beaumetz 

Treatment of, 229 
Typhoid Fever, Remedies for, 229 

TTLCER, Gastric, Ice Cream as a 
U Cure for, 235 
Ulefos-Strengen Canal in Norway, 

113 
Underflow of California Gravel 

Beds, 37 
Underground Conduits, Threading 

Device for, 253 
Union Pacific Railway, Fast Run 

on, 97 
Universal Woodworker of the Egan 

Co., 187 



University, Stanford, 340 
Uric Acid in Causing Headache, 232 
Uric Acid, Influence of Various 
Agents upon the Secretion of, 
232 233 
U. S. Bridge Laws, 127 
U. S. Government Guns, 319 
U. S., Number of Locomotives in, 7 
U. S., Number of Steam Engines 

in, 7 
U. S. Population of, 340 
Utica Water Works, Aeration Sys- 
tem in, 38 
L'tilization of Niagara, 22 
Utilization of the Water Power of 

Lake Supeiior, 29 
Uniform Steamship Route, 331 

T7ACUUM Brake Attachment, 82 
v Vacuum Tubes Without Elec- 
trodes, 300 

Vancouver Steel Bridge, 122 

Vansize's Electric Railway, 250 

Variable Exhaust Nozzle for Loco- 
motives, 73 

Vauclain Compound Locomotive, 
61 

Velocity of Steam Through Orifices, 
5 

Ventilated Freight Cars for Fruit, 82 

Ventilating Tunnels, 116 

Venus, Spots on, 325 

Verneuil's Process for Artificial 
Rubies, 206 

Verrugas Cantilever Bridge, 126 

Vertical Chucking Machine. 164 

Vertical Engines for Water Works, 
38 

Vessel for Study of Oceanography, 
339 

Vessels Building at Union Iron 
Works, 50 

Vessels, Types of, 41 

Vesuvius, Dynamite Cruiser, 55 

Vienna-Pesth Electric Railway, 254 

Vigreux & Feray's Plan for Util- 
izing Niagara, 28 

Vigreux & Levy's Project for Util- 
izing Niagara. 24 

Vine-Pruning, Cazenove on. 327 

Vine-Pruning, Thoreau on, 327 

Violet Dye, Neutral, 215 

Von Borries' Compound Locomo- 
tive, 64 

WADDELL ENTZ Storage Bat- 
tery, 276 
Wagon. Steam Traction, 7 
Walker's Corliss Gear, 3 
Walker M'f'g Co., Monstrous Gear 

Wheel, 169 
Walker's System of Haulage by 

Electricity, 252 
Wand, Electric, in Bee Taming, 300 



372 



INDEX. 



Ward's Mechanical Stoker for Lo- 
comotives, 71 

Washer, Spring, 345 

Washing Sugar with Alcohol, 212 

Washington, Improvements at, 340 

Water, Ammonia as a Fire Extin- 
guisher, 213 

Water, Dead Sea, as an Antiseptic, 
234 

Water-Gauge, Automatic, 10 

Water, Locomotion in, 219 

Water-Motor Driving Steam Pump 
and Driven by Dynamo, 2G8 

Water Power of Lake Superior, 29 

Waterproofing Leather and Raw 
Hides, 210 

Water, Purification and Filtering 
of, 208 

Water, Purification of by Electric- 
ity, 289 

Water, Purification of by Iron Sul- 
phate, 203 

Water-Raising Device, for Railway 
Tanks, 101 

Water Supply of Bombay, 33 

Watertight Geared Motor, 260 

Water Tube Boiler, 9 

Waterwheel, 39 

Water Works, 38 

Water Works' Association Report,38 

Watson, Laidlaw & Co.'s Helix- 
forming Machine, 162 

Watson's Centerboard Yachts on 
the Clyde, 41 

Watt-Meter, Swinburn's, 280 

Watt's Method of Developing Pho- 
tographs Without a Dark Room, 
220 

Weather, Kansas, 322 

Weather Signal Bureau, 321 

Webb's Compound Locomotive, 
Great Britain. 64 

Webb's Compound Locomotive, 
Fast Rim of, 100 

Weed-Cutting with Hand Car, 85 

Welding Machine, Electric. 299 

Weighing Machine, Mercurial, 223 

Weldon's Range Finder, 313 

Weldless Steel Chain, 19 

Well Lining, 36 

Wertz' Combination Arc and Incan- 
descent Lamp, 245 

West End Power Station, Boston, 
250 

Western States, Irrigation in, 37 

Westins-house's Compound Direct 
Acting Engine and Pump, 5 

Weston Triplex Spur Gear Hoisting 
Block, 165 

Wey burn's Electrical Cloth- Cutting 
Device, 285 

W r haleback Steamers, 52 

Wheatstone Duplex Telegraphic 
Instrument, 304 



Wheel Boxing Machinery, 191 
Wheel Making Machinery, 188 
White Lead Process, 203 
White Star Cattle Steamer No- 

?7iadic 48 
Wiebe's Tests of Submerged Chain 

System of Canal Traction, 113 
Wigham's 8,000,000 Candle-Power 

Lighthouse, 334 
Williams' Discoveries Concerning 

Markings on Saturn, 325 
Willcocks' Plan for Increasing the 
Summer Supply of the Nile, 30 
Willson's 1000 H. P. Dynamo, 248 
Wiman's Staten Inland Railwa3 r , 91 
Wimshurst's Static Electric Motor, 

269 
Winding Marine for Bobbins. 195 
Windmill Electric Light Plant, 224 
Wine as Affecting the Excretion of 

Uric Acid, 233 
Wine, Preserving, by Electricity, 

290 
Winkler Dynamo, 247 
Winton Railway Line and Insula- 
tor 253 
Wiring, Electric, Slide Rule for, 345 
Wires, Electric, Safety Device for, 

283 
Wire Loop Holder, 22 
Wires, Mica Insulation for, 284 
Wiring, House, Electric. 284 
Whooping Cough, Treatment of, 230 
Woakes' Compound Plunger Hy- 
draulic Pump, 38 
Wolfe Island Bridge, 126 
Wolfram, Demand for in New Zea- 
land, 134 
Wooden Tooth Gear Wheels, 169 
Woodworker, Universal, 187 
Woodworking Machinery, 173 
Woolf Compound Locomotive, 65 
World's Fair of 1892, Electric Rail- 
ways at, 253 
Worms, Silk, Fed on Dandelion 

and Salsify, 330 
Worsdell Compound Locomotive, 64 
Worthen's Rapid Transit Railway 

for New York, 91 
World's Fair of 1893, Traveling 

Sidewalk at, 253 
Writing, Type, 237 
Wrought Iron Locomotive Pistons, 
73 

YARN Racks, Evening Device for, 
194 
"Yarrow's Torpedo Boat for the Ar- 
gentine Government, 45 
Yarrow's Tubular Marine Boiler, 9 

7INC-NICKEL Alloy, 150 
^ Zone System of Railway Man- 
agement in Ireland, 106 



Hints to Power Users. 

PLAIN, PRACTICAL POINTERS, 

FREE FROM HIGH SCIENCE, AND INTENDED FOR THE 

MAN WHO PAYS THE BILLS. 

BY 

ROBERT GRIMSHAW, M.E., Etc. 

Author of "Steam Engine Catechism" "Pump Catechism" "Boiler 

Catechism" " Preparing for Indication" "Engineers'" Hourly 

Log Book" and other Practical Books. 



I Vol. i6mo, Cloth. Price, $1.00. 

Under the above title the well-known engineering expert, Mr. 
Robert Grimshaw, whose catechisms of the Steam Engine, Pump and 
Boiler, and other practical works, have proved so popular among 
working engineers, has prepared some meaty non-technical advice to 
the men who pay the bills. Having proved his ability to put expert 
engineering knowledge into a style suitable to interest and instruct 
the men who run engines, pumps and boilers of every description, he 
has gone further, and prepared for those having no practical knowl- 
edge whatever of steam-engineering, good sound advice, in good plain 
English, as to what to do and what not to do in choosing, buying, 
placing, and operating every part of a power plant. From ash-pit to 
exhaust-head, from fly-wheel to belt-lace, no item seems to escape 
him. Nothing seems too insignificant to be neglected ; nothing too 
complicated to be explained, and to be talked about, in simple phrase. 
These talks are straightforward and to the point ; and have a direct 
money value as well as a most undoubted charm of manner. Mr. 
Grimshaw, knowing these subjects " from the ground up," speaks 
" as one having authority." The book is singularly independent and 
free from bias, and no power-men should be without it, particularly as 
its price, post-paid, is but a dollar. 



CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY, 

104 & 106 Fourth Avenue, New York. 



10 



TO 

POWER USERS 



"The book ought to prove especially serviceable to engineers; although its 
terse nuggets of practical wisdom will as surely help their employers as well." — 
Practical Electricity. 

" It is as full of valuable information as an egg is full of meat. It is the best 
book . . . we have yet seen from the prolific pen of Dr. Grimshaw. No doubt 
it will have a large sale." — The American Engineer. 

" The book will be found of the greatest value to those who use steam. . . . 
Deserves a welcome from all steam users who wish to study care and economy." — 
Philadelphia Weekly Item. 

"The professional experience of the writer has fitted him especially for this 
work ; and the ' hints ' embodied in the book will be found to be productive of good 
to power users who read and heed them." — American Manufacturer and Iron 
World. 

" To all users of power, who desire to know that they get what they are pay- 
ing for, this work is worth many times the dollar asked for it. The high reputa- 
tion of the author, and the success that has attended the publication of his many 
other works, are earnests for the present book." — Chicago Journal of Co77imerce. 

" Gives a world of useful information covering almost every conceivable topic 
relating to boilers and engines, water-wheels, shafting, and all other agencies per- 
taining to the transmission of power." — The Paper World. 

" The author's reputation as an expert and public instructor in matters of this 
kind is well known, and in this case admirably sustained. . . . It is happily 
innocent of the usual technical mysteries, and to that hitherto neglected constitu- 
ency who have to foot the bills, as power users, this terse and compact little vol- 
ume cannot fail to be of more than ordinary value. . . . Get it." — The Age 
of Steel. 

" One of the most valuable little books for the manufacturer issued for a long 
time. . . . Information for everyday use, such as is furnished here, is gener- 
ally not obtainable excepting through long and vexatious searching of many 
ponderous volumes. There is an entire absence of obscure scientific phraseology, 
and everything is made so simple that any one can understand the advice given 
and rules formulated." — New York Recorder. 

"A valuable contribution to the literature of the steam engine." — The Mill- 
stone. 



CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY, 

104 & 106 Fourth Avenue, New York. 



"INFINITE RICHES IN A LITTLE ROOM." 

CASSELL'S COMPLETE 

POCKET # GUIDE * TO * EUROPE 

EDITION FOR 1892. 
Edited by E. C. STEDMAXT. 



One Volume, Leather Binding, Price, $1.50, 



This complete and real Pocket Guide has now been 
tested by ten years of steadily increasing use. It 
contains Routes and Details for travel in all portions 
of Europe usually covered in a single tour. It is fuller 
and more specific than many guide-books of larger pro- 
portions. It can be carried in a man's coat or hip- 
pocket, or in a woman's dress pocket or muff. 

For the present issue a special revision has been made 
to the latest practicable date. New Maps and other 
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mend it as a model book of its kind. 

" It is accurate, its maps are clear and legible, and its information 
full and exact." — Boston Transcript. 

" Its handy form, large type, frequent maps, and flexible binding 
are among its meritorious points." — A T ation, New York. 

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Bulletin. 

"The work of experts in Guide-Book Literature." — Boston 
Journal. 

" Such a model of fullness of information, compactness of arrange- 
ment, and cheapness should be in every European Tourist's Pocket." 
— New York Mail and Express. 



For Sale by all Booksellers. 



CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY, 

104 & 106 Fourth Avenue, New York. 

55 



"Choose an author as you choose a friend." — Roscommon. 

CASSELL'S SELECTED LIBRARY 

OF 

STANDARD LITERATURE. 



In offering this new series of volumes, it is the purpose of the 
publishers to present, in an exceptionally convenient and attractive 
form, a choice variety of what are universally regarded as typical 
examples of " THE BEST BOOKS." Despite the changing 
standards of literary judgment, a few works — only a comparative few 
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occasion that gave them birth ; their merits appearing even more 
clearly with the lapse of time. Sometimes temporarily obscured in 
the fatuous mist of ll current literature," their preeminence has always 
been shortly reacknowledged and their deserved popularity restored. 
A carefully adjudged collection of these " immortals" will constitute 

CASSELL'S SELECTED LIBRARY. 

The volumes are i6mo in size, suitable alike for the bookshelf or 
the satchel. They are carefully printed in clear type, on extra 
paper with ample margins, and are beautifully bound in extra cloth; 
with gold and ink dies. 



PRICE 50 CENTS PER VOLUME. 



NOW READY. 
HEROES AND HERO WORSHIP. Thomas Carlyle. 

FRIENDS IN COUNCIL, (ist series.) Arthur Helps. 
THE COMPLETE ANGLER. Isaac Walton, 
THE HAUNTED MAN. Charles Dickens. 
SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY and 

THE SPECTATOR'S CLUB. Addison and Steele. 
THE LIFE OF NELSON. Robert Southed 



OTHER VOLUMES IN PRESS. 



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104 & 106 Fourth Avenue, New York, 
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